UChicago Medicine designated SOAP Center of Excellence for obstetric anesthesia

The Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) has designated the University of Chicago Medicine as a SOAP Center of Excellence for its obstetric anesthesia program.

The SOAP Center of Excellence designation, which remains valid for four years, recognizes institutions and programs that demonstrate excellence in obstetric anesthesia care, sets a benchmark level of expected care to improve the standards nationally, and provides a broad surrogate quality metric of institutions providing obstetric anesthesia care.

The criteria for the COE designation include personnel and staffing; equipment, protocols and policies; simulation and team training; obstetric emergency management; cesarean delivery and labor analgesia care; recommendations and guidelines implementation; and quality assurance and patient follow-up systems. The criteria for the SOAP COE designation, which covers all aspects of obstetric anesthesia care, were generated by expert consensus and incorporate evidence-based recommendations.

“As a tertiary care center on the South Side of Chicago, UChicago Medicine serves a high-risk population of patients, including those with high-risk maternal or fetal conditions,” said Barbara Scavone, MD, Chief of the Section of Obstetric Anesthesia. “Our team is honored to be recognized for our contributions and commitment to patients and appreciate the support and collaboration from colleagues across the medical campus.”