TGH Earns Redesignation as a Baby Friendly Hospital and is Named a Best Maternity Hospital

Tampa General Hospital is commended for its dedication to world-class maternity care.

 

Tampa, FL (June 26, 2023) – As part of its vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is pleased to announce its successful redesignation as a Baby-Friendly® Hospital and its inclusion in Newsweek’s list of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2023. This dual recognition showcases the hospital's unwavering steadfastness in providing exceptional care, nurturing environments and comprehensive support to expectant mothers and their newborns.

Earning the Baby-Friendly® designation is a prestigious and rigorous achievement and Tampa General remains the only Baby-Friendly® designated birth facility in Hillsborough County. The Baby-Friendly® hospital designation is only given to facilities that have implemented the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and are compliant with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. The U.S. guidelines and evaluation criteria are based on the rigorous global criteria for the WHO/UNICEF Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.

Tampa General was also recognized on Newsweek’s roster of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals for 2023, and this marks the hospital's third consecutive appearance on the list. Out of 10,000 maternity hospitals evaluated, Tampa General Hospital stands among a distinguished group of 384 leading institutions, having earned a four-ribbon rating. The hospital's status was determined based on a meticulous analysis of three robust data sources, conducted by Newsweek in partnership with Statista:

• Nationwide online survey: Health care professionals and hospital managers with knowledge about maternity processes, e.g., neonatal and perinatal doctors, nurses and midwives, were asked to recommend leading maternity hospitals in the U.S.
• Medical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on hospitals with a focus on indicators, relevant to maternity care.
• Results from patient surveys.

“As new research advances our understanding of maternal morbidity, maternal mortality and pregnancy, and women’s health, these awards further emphasize our diligence in improving outcomes for both mothers and infants,” said Dr. Judette Louis, chief, TGH Women’s Institute, James M. Ingram Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “We are proud of our multidisciplinary team of experts and will continue pushing the boundaries of innovation, research and education to ensure that every mother receives the highest quality medical attention and that every newborn has the best possible start in life. These distinctions reflect our goals to advance the field of obstetrics and gynecology, promote maternal well-being and improve the health of our community."

Other acknowledgments presented to Tampa General include:

• In 2020, Tampa General Hospital became the first in the nation to be named as a Maternal Center of Excellence by the Maternal Safety Foundation for both vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) and placenta accreta, a serious complication of pregnancy that occurs when the placenta grows too deeply into the wall of the uterus. A woman’s risk for developing this condition increases with the number of previous cesarean births.
• Tampa General was recognized in 2020 for its achievement in maternal care during a Florida Hospital Association webinar titled “Reducing Unnecessary C-Sections: Successful Florida Strategies.”
• In 2021, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health named Tampa General Hospital as one of only 15 delivery hospitals in Florida to promote vaginal deliveries and reduce cesarean section deliveries for first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies.
• In 2022, Tampa General Hospital was recognized by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health with an award for exceeding national goals for reducing the number of unnecessary cesarean deliveries for first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies and instead promoting vaginal deliveries. It was one of only 26 delivery hospitals in Florida to achieve the award.

“Accolades like these further underscore Tampa General Hospital's determination to deliver extraordinary treatment and support to mothers and their newborns,” said Melissa Golombek, vice president, TGH Children’s Hospital and Women’s Institute. “They reflect our devotion to upholding the utmost standards of maternity services and affirm our position as a leader in providing the safest possible care.”

The Labor & Delivery Unit and the Jennifer Leigh Muma Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at TGH were both designed with mothers and infants in mind, with large operating rooms reserved for cesarean sections, in-vitro procedures, fetal surgery and other gynecological procedures, accommodating mothers delivering twins or other multiples. These environments allow nurses, doctors and other clinicians within these units to provide mothers the information, confidence and skills to initiate and continue breastfeeding, among other important neonatal practices.

Furthermore, the NICU at Tampa General is one of just 12 Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Centers designated by the state of Florida and allows Tampa General and USF Health providers to partner to deliver specialized medical care 24 hours a day to premature and sick infants and to women with high-risk pregnancies. Due to these state-of-the-art facilities and a strong clinical team, the academic health system delivered more than 7,000 babies – the most in its history – during the 2022 fiscal year (October 2021 through September 2022) and completed the most high-risk deliveries in the region.

“We are so proud that more and more families are choosing to deliver their babies at Tampa General,” said Nikki Hurley, MSN, RN, NE-BC, senior director, TGH Children’s Hospital. “We believe it is a testament to the successful collaboration between our physicians and team members and ultimately results in a better outcome for moms and their babies.”

Tampa General Hospital’s Women’s Institute provides a full range of women’s health services, from routine obstetrics and gynecology to more complex maternal-fetal medicine and neonatal care. As an academic health system and nationally recognized leader in high-risk obstetrics, Tampa General offers access to the highest level of women’s and infant care in virtually every medical subspecialty, as well as psychology, genetic counseling, pediatrics and more.

Tampa General Hospital is ranked in the top 50 hospitals in the nation and is the highest-ranked hospital in Florida for Obstetrics & Gynecology by U.S. News & World Report for 2022-23, and has achieved every Maternity Care standard set by the Leapfrog Group in 2022.

To learn more about the Obstetrics Center at Tampa General Hospital, please visit https://www.tgh.org/institutes-and-services/womens-institute/obstetrics-center.