HealthAlliance Hospital Earns Top Credential for Infant Best Safe Sleep Practices

HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus in Kingston, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), has for the third consecutive year earned the top-grade, gold-level "Certified Safe Sleep Champion" credential for demonstrating the highest commitment to promoting the safest sleep practices for infants.

HealthAlliance's nationally recognized Family Birth Place at the Broadway Campus, 396 Broadway, is the only hospital between New York City and Albany this year to receive gold-level certification through the National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program. The program is administered by Cribs for Kids and validated by the New York State Perinatal Quality Collaborative.

The certification verifies that HealthAlliance meets or exceeds the American Academy of Pediatrics' safe sleep guidelines and provides safe sleep training for parents, employees and community members.

Cribs for Kids is a private, national nonprofit organization that conducts external quality reviews through the National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program to endorse hospitals that practice the best safe sleep standards. It also provides education about safe sleep for infants to reduce infant sleep-related deaths.

The Perinatal Quality Collaborative, part of the state Department of Health's Division of Family Health, helps hospitals provide the safest care for women and infants. It works with HealthAlliance and other birthing hospitals, perinatal care providers, professional organizations and other key stakeholders to prevent or minimize harm by ensuring evidence-based guidelines are carried out in clinical practice. Reducing infant mortality by improving safe sleep practices is one of the collaborative's focus areas.

"Congratulations to our remarkable department for earning this prestigious recognition yet another time," said Robin Stevens, MSN, RNC-OB, CDE, Director of the Family Birth Place. "This credential shows that HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus has demonstrated the highest-level commitment to community leadership in advancing best practices and education in infant sleep safety. Like an accreditation, becoming certified lets patients know HealthAlliance has undergone an exacting performance assessment and met or exceeded a robust series of qualifications in patient safety and quality of care – in this case, in making babies as safe as possible in their sleep environments. Meeting these standards has a profound effect on the number of babies' lives that are saved."

Only 14 of New York's 152 acute-care hospitals received the gold-level "Certified Safe Sleep Champion" credential this year. Three hospitals received a silver recognition and eight received a bronze recognition.

HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus is also nationally recognized for offering an optimal level of care for infant feeding and mother-baby bonding after birth. This qualification as a Baby-Friendly hospital from Baby-Friendly USA certifies that HealthAlliance supports immediate mother-baby bonding and breastfeeding for a baby's best health.