Women’s Services at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital and Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital both have received certification as Texas Ten
Step Facilities by the Texas Hospital Association and the Texas Department of
State Health Services for their comprehensive breastfeeding support programs.
Texas Ten Step certification requires facilities to have 75 percent of mothers
breastfeeding at discharge, and to identify breastfeeding support resources for
mothers prior to and following delivery.
“Becoming a Texas Ten Step Certified Hospital recognizes the excellent
breastfeeding support and nursing care that we provide to new mothers and
babies,
” said Steven Weber, chief nursing officer at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land. “The certification acknowledges our commitment to supporting breastfeeding
through our patient care practices, staff training and family education.
”
The program, which recognizes breastfeeding as the ideal nutrition for infants,
is based on the WHO-UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.
The goal of Texas Ten Step is to help hospitals increase breastfeeding rates to
75 percent of infants at hospital discharge, 50 percent at six months and 25
percent at one year. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises breastfeeding
exclusively for the first six months, maintaining breastfeeding for the first
year and as mutually desired between mother and child thereafter.
Researchers have determined that beginning breastfeeding early improves the
breastfeeding experience and reduces the risk of infant morbidities and
mortalities.
“In our Family Center, mothers are supported before delivery with breastfeeding
preparation classes,
” said Linda Salter, director of women’s services at Memorial Hermann Katy. “In addition, lactation counselors are available to assist mothers with
first-hour breastfeeding, daily follow-up visits and on-call as needed.
”
After delivery, assistance continues with follow-up lactation support for
mothers after discharge and resources for community breastfeeding support.
Sean Burnett has joined Freed Advertising to lead account management and planning efforts for the agency. Prior to Freed,
Burnett headed strategic and operational responsibilities as director of MBA
Programs at Rice University
’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.
Burnett has more than a decade of experience in retail strategic planning,
marketing and operations management working with Outback Steakhouse Inc., as
well as with Fortune 500 companies such as Yum! Brands International in
Louisville, Ky., and SYSCO Foods Inc. in Houston.
He also has experience in leading advertising agency-based account service for
large clients such as the
Houston Chronicle, Compaq, KFC, Rheem/RUUD HVAC Systems and Igloo Products Corporation.
Burnett earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising from the University
of Texas at Austin, augmenting his training by participating in UT
’s nationally-ranked Creative Sequence. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Rice
University.
Methodist Sugar Land Hospital was honored by The Texas Medical Foundation with its annual Quality Improvement
Achievement Award.
The Texas Medical Foundation recognized Methodist Sugar Land Hospital for its
demonstration of improved performance on a wide range of national quality
measures during the 2008 calendar year.
Out of 227 participating Texas hospitals, only 66 were presented with Quality
Improvement Achievement Awards, including three from The Methodist Hospital
System. The Methodist Hospital and Methodist Willowbrook Hospital joined
Methodist Sugar Land Hospital as award-winners for improving care related to
acute myocardial infarction or AMI (heart attack), heart failure, pneumonia and
surgical care.
