St. Elizabeth Community Recognized for Maternity Care, Patient Safety and Opioid Care

Red Bluff, Calif. – St. Elizabeth Community Hospital (SECH) earned honor roll recognition for their high performance in maternity care, patient safety, and commitment to safe opioid care by California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, and Cal Hospital Compare.

“Improving the quality of patient care in hospitals is critically important,” said Dr. Ghaly. “These annual measurements through Cal Hospital Compare allow us to acknowledge hospitals doing excellent work and also inform hospitals when improvement is needed.”

The 2019 Maternity Honor Roll recognizes 134 hospitals that met or surpassed the federal target aimed at reducing births via C-section in first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies. Every year approximately 500,000 babies are born in California. In fact, childbirth is the number one reason for hospitalization in the U.S. and California. For mothers, overuse of cesarean sections (C-sections) can result in higher rates of complications like hemorrhage, transfusions, infection, and blood clots. The surgery also brings risks for babies, including higher rates of infection, respiratory complications, neonatal intensive care unit stays, and lower breastfeeding rates.

SECH was also recognized for Patient Safety. Cal Hospital Compare has rigorously evaluated a set of publicly available patient safety measures to evaluate hospitals across several areas in patient safety, including hospital acquired infections, adverse events, sepsis management, patient experience, and more.

This year Cal Hospital Compare launched the Opioid Care Honor Roll to help address the ongoing opioid crisis. According to state data, nearly 2,200 Californians died of an opioid-related overdose in 2017. To accelerate hospital progress in building systems to treat hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder and train health care professionals in opioid safety practices, Cal Hospital Compare supports the California Opioid Care Honor Roll Program. The goal of the program is increased access to addiction treatment for hospitalized patients and reduction of opioid-related deaths. 

About Dignity Health North State

Mercy Medical Center Redding, St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff, and Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta are Dignity Health North State hospitals sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn. The hospitals are passionate about patient care, committed to community outreach, advocates for the underserved, and dedicated to delivering quality, affordable health services to those in need.  In 2019, the Dignity Health North State Hospitals cared for more than 90,000 people and provided more than $22 million in community benefit to the region we serve.  The hospitals also offer a broad array of outpatient services and the senior services of Connected Living.  Visit www.mercy.org to learn more.