Cooper Awarded the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s (BCBSA) Blue Distinction® Center for Maternity Care Designation

To help prospective parents find hospitals that deliver quality maternity care, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield announced that Cooper University Health Care has been awarded the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s (BCBSA) Blue Distinction® Center for Maternity Care designation, a designation under the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.

Nearly four million babies are born in the U.S. annually, making childbirth the most common cause of hospitalization.  This new BCBSA Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program evaluates hospitals on several quality measures, including the percentage of newborns that fall into the category of early elective delivery, an ongoing concern in the medical community. Compared with babies born 39 weeks or later, early term infants face higher risks of infant death and respiratory ailments such as respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, and respiratory failure, among other conditions. These babies also have a higher rate of admission to Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

In addition, hospitals that receive a BCBSA Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care designation agreed to meet requirements that align with principles that support evidence-based practices of care, as well as having initiated programs to promote successful breastfeeding, as described in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative by Baby-Friendly USA or the Mother-Friendly Hospital program by the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) through its “Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care.” The program also evaluates hospitals on overall patient satisfaction, including a willingness to recommend the hospital to others. Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care, an expansion of the national Blue Distinction Specialty Care program, are hospitals recognized for delivering quality specialty care safely and effectively, based on objective measures developed with input from the medical community.

Cooper University Health Care promotes family-centered care and offers comprehensive prenatal testing, family education, an antepartum diagnostic center, a post-delivery Maternal Intermediate Care Unit (MICU), a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and 26-bed, all private room Mother-Infant Unit using the couplet care model where a mother can keep her baby in her room throughout the hospital stay.

“We are honored to have received this award and the recognition that comes with receiving the distinction,” said Robin L. Perry, MD, FACOG, Chairman and Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist. “Our team has always prided itself on offering patients the highest quality care and safety for the best possible outcomes, and this recognition validates our efforts.”

BCBSA companies across the nation have recognized more than 280 hospitals as Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care. Hospitals recognized for these designations were assessed using a combination of publicly available quality information and cost measures derived from BCBS companies’ medical claims.

Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality providers for their specialty care needs in the areas of bariatric surgery, cardiac care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacements, spine surgery, and transplants. For more information about the program and for a complete list of designated doctors and medical facilities, please visit www.bcbs.com/bluedistinction.

About Cooper University Health Care

Cooper University Health Care is the leading academic health system in South Jersey. Cooper includes South Jersey’s only Level I trauma center (Cooper University Hospital), a leading cancer center (MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper), the only Level II pediatric trauma center in the Delaware Valley (Children’s Regional Hospital), one of the largest physicians group in the region, four urgent care centers, and more than 100 outpatient offices throughout South Jersey and Pennsylvania. Cooper has been carrying out its mission “to serve, to heal, to educate” since 1887.

About Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state’s oldest and largest health insurer is a tax-paying, not-for-profit health service corporation, providing a wide array of medical, dental, and prescription insurance products and services serving 3.8 million members. Horizon BCBSNJ is leading the transformation of health care in New Jersey by working with doctors and hospitals to deliver innovative, patient-centered programs that reward the quality, not quantity, of care patients receive. Learn more at www.HorizonBlue.com. Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 36 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans. BCBSA provides health care insights through The Health of America Report series and the national BCBS Health Indexsm. For more information on BCBSA and its member companies, please visit BCBS.com. We also encourage you to connect with us on Facebook, check out our videos on YouTube, follow us on Twitter and check out our blog.

About Blue Distinction Centers
Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) met overall quality measures for patient safety and outcomes, developed with input from the medical community. A Local Blue Plan may require additional criteria for providers located in its own service area; for details, contact your Local Blue Plan. Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also met cost measures that address consumers’ need for affordable healthcare. Each provider’s cost of care is evaluated using data from its Local Blue Plan. Providers in CA, ID, NY, PA, and WA may lie in two Local Blue Plans’ areas, resulting in two evaluations for cost of care; and their own Local Blue Plans decide whether one or both cost of care evaluation(s) must meet BDC+ national criteria. National criteria for BDC and BDC+ are displayed on www.bcbs.com. Individual outcomes may vary. For details on a provider’s in-network status or your own policy’s coverage, contact your Local Blue Plan and ask your provider before making an appointment. Neither Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor any Blue Plans are responsible for non-covered charges or other losses or damages resulting from Blue Distinction or other provider finder information or care received from Blue Distinction or other providers.

####

Wendy A. Marano
Public Relations Manager
marano-wendy@cooperhealth.edu
856.382.6463

Leave a Reply

DO NOT USE THIS FORM FOR APPOINTMENTS. Using this form will only delay your ability to get an appointment. Please use the contact information in the article or visit appointments.cooperhealth.org.