Shady Grove Maternity Team Earns Maryland’s Top Patient Safety Prize
Hospital breaks barriers with infant feeding initiative and makes donor breast milk an option accessible to all families.
In April, the Maryland Patient Safety Center presented Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center with the 2024 Minogue Award, its highest honor for patient safety innovation. An independent panel of judges from the healthcare community reviewed more than 50 submissions before naming Shady Grove Medical Center the winner.
The hospital’s award-winning project was titled “Impact of Breastmilk and Donor Breastmilk Exclusively on Improved Quality Measures and Outcomes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
Team members at the Birth Center at Shady Grove Medical Center sought to address neonatal hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. In 2019, the hospital identified the condition as the second most common reason that newborns were admitted to its NICU. Departments across Shady Grove Medical Center collaborated on new feeding processes to treat the condition, increasing the use of donor breastmilk and establishing a protocol for administering glucose gel to infants. Shady Grove Medical Center then expanded the effort to provide the option of donor milk to all babies in its NICU, maternity and pediatric units.
Exciting Results
“Every newborn should be able to access human milk as a nutrition option and a standard of treatment,” noted Laura Speer, RN, manager of the NICU at Shady Grove Medical Center. “This initiative marks a significant step in reducing medical, resource, racial and social disparities. Now, every family who wants and needs this precious resource can have it at our hospital.”
Shady Grove Medical Center hosts Maryland’s only hospital-based milk depot, which allows moms who deliver at the hospital to access safe donor milk for infants who are premature or require extra nutrition. Local moms with extra milk can register and donate their surplus to the hospital.
“We’ve long known the benefits of breast milk for moms and babies. We’re delighted to see the Milk Depot at Shady Grove contributing to better outcomes for our tiny patients and their families,” said Carol Chornock, RN, manager of lactation services and childbirth education.
Through its award-winning initiative, Shady Grove Medical Center nearly halved its NICU admission rate for hypoglycemic infants, from 10.7% in 2019 to 5.6% in 2020. The effort also lowered the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSIs. In December 2023, the NICU at Shady Grove Medical Center marked five years without a CLABSI.
“This project demonstrates the commitment that caregivers across our hospital have to holistic care and improving the well-being of vulnerable newborns and their families,” noted Joan Vincent, vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Shady Grove Medical Center. “We are grateful to earn this prestigious recognition from the Maryland Patient Safety Center.”
Welcoming a baby? Discover the classes and support programs available at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center at AHCYou.com/S24Family.
