Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Recognized on 2017 Hospital C-Section Honor Roll

The California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) has announced that Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital was one of 111 hospitals in California who surpassed a federal target aimed at reducing Cesarean births (C-Sections) for first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies. This achievement marks the second-consecutive year Sierra Nevada Memorial made the honor roll based on 2015 and 2016 discharge data.

The CHHS recently announced the awards on behalf of Smart Care California – a coalition of public and private health care purchasers that collectively purchase or manage care for more than 16 million Californians statewide.

“We are delighted and honored to be part of the 2017 Hospital C-Section Honor Roll”, said Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital President Katherine Mederios. “This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our physicians, staff and Dignity Health to reduce the cesarean birth rate through a collaborative and system-wide approach to support vaginal births. We believe that this reduction is good for mothers and babies.”

In response to a rapid rise in C-Sections across the United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services adopted the Healthy People 2020 target of reducing nationwide C-section rates for low risk, first-births to 23.9 percent. In October 2015, Smart Care California began its focus on this issue as well.

“We applaud the hospitals that have hit the 23.9 percent target two years in a row,” said Elliott Main, M.D., who leads the California Maternity Care Quality Collaborative (CMQCC, a multi-stakeholder organization committed to ending preventable morbidity, mortality and racial disparities in California maternity care. “Sustainability is hard, but these hospitals have shown it can be done. It involves a commitment from leadership and the engagement of the entire team of nurses and doctors.”