CHOC Hospital has again been nationally recognized as a certified “Safe Sleep Leader” for promoting infant safe sleep through best practices and education of staff and families, maintaining the silver status it was awarded in 2022.
The National Safe Sleep Hospital Certification Program was created by Cribs for Kids®, an organization dedicated to preventing sleep-related deaths due to accidental suffocation.
To earn the distinction, hospitals must meet a handful of criteria, including:
- the development of an infant safe sleep policy;
- training of healthcare team members;
- educating families and caregivers; and
- identifying families needing a safe sleep space and referring them to local resources.
Among the activities that led to CHOC maintaining the silver-level certification was forming a multi-disciplinary safe sleep committee; developing a safe sleep policy statement; using wearable blankets to model no loose bedding in cribs; providing family/caregiver education; and expanding staff training.
Staff knowledge of and compliance with best practices are consistently reinforced through learning modules, safety huddles, staff meetings and monthly audits. Additionally, nurses and therapists in CHOC’s neonatal intensive care unit develop individualized safe sleep plans for every fragile baby under their care.
