UCLA Named Center of Excellence by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology

UCLA Named Center of Excellence by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology 

Written by Lisa Lewis, MS

In recognition of the outstanding obstetric anesthesia care provided by the UCLA Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine (DAPM), the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has been designated a Center for Excellence by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP). 

The designation is effective until 2029, at which point it can be renewed. It provides a recognized benchmark for obstetric anesthesiology, encompassing a wide range of criteria including staffing, workflows, equipment, simulations, emergency management, quality assurance, and analgesic care.

Building On a Strong Foundation

“This recognition reflects years and years of hard work and dedication,” said Maxime Cannesson, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair. “The focus, commitment and sheer will of both the OB Anesthesia and Trauma and Multi-Specialty Team members made this critical change possible.

“The foundations were established years ago by Dr. Richard Hong, former Division Chief of OB Anesthesia,” Dr. Cannesson continued. “Over the past two years, Dr. Cathy Cha has built upon these foundations, making the necessary adjustments to secure this prestigious certification.”

Catherine Cha, MD, who previously served as Interim Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology and was just appointed as chief of the division, noted that the preparation and application process were both quite rigorous. “We wanted to highlight our dedication and hard work, and the collaboration of our entire OB anesthesiology division, to providing the highest standards of quality and evidence-based patient care,” she said.

Judi Turner, MD, PhD, Vice Chair for Education, added: “I am grateful to our division, under the leadership of Dr. Cha, for the tremendous work this required. I am also thankful to Dr. Cannesson and our entire DAPM for supporting the significant long-term changes that allow us to provide the dedicated, safe, high-quality obstetric anesthesia care required for such a distinction.”

Excellent High-Risk Obstetric Care

Receiving the Center for Excellence designation underscores the division’s qualifications for caring for high-risk patients. 

“This designates UCLA as a primary referral center to care for all expectant mothers, irrespective of their complex comorbidities,” said Jason Hirsch, MD, Medical Director of UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center Obstetric Anesthesiology.

“Our OB anesthesia team cares for a multitude of patients, including high-risk, complex maternal and fetal cases,” added Tina Yu, MD, Program Director of the UCLA Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship. “This designation is a testament of the continued commitment of our hospital and team to provide exceptional care for all pregnant patients.”

UCLA’s commitment to providing excellent high-risk obstetric care also has implications for ongoing training and education. “Medical student, residency, and fellowship training are dependent on learning from these types of patients,” Richard Hong, MD, said. This is a likely draw for fellowship applicants, he added, noting that the division received a record number of fellowship applications this year.

Collaboration and Preparation

In addition to building upon the evidence-based practices that were already in place, the division collaborated with other departments including Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and Pharmacy, Dr. Cha said. “We attend multidisciplinary meetings for high-risk patients and for cardio-obstetric patients and helped facilitate EXIT procedures here at UCLA. We meet with the Blood and Platelet Center regularly to discuss massive transfusion protocols,” she said.

“We already had existing drills and simulations, along with redundant staffing, to prepare for emergencies,” she added. 

The division also worked closely with the Trauma and Multi-Specialty Team, led by David Boldt, MD, MS, Chief of the Division of Trauma and Adult Multi Specialty Anesthesiology, to establish a dedicated OB Call team at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. “Five years ago, we did not have a dedicated OB anesthesiologist on call during nights and weekends at Ronald Reagan – an unthinkable reality today,” Dr. Cannesson said.

Dashboards for Daily Metrics

As part of its focus on quality assurance and improvement, the division created new obstetric dashboards for checking daily metrics, including wet-tap and conversion-to-general-anesthesia rates, with support from DAPM’s informatics group. 

“We already had a pretty robust quality improvement system in place, and we built upon that,” said Dr. Cha. 

Additional Equipment and Medications

The division has acquired a number of new devices over the last few years that support its mission of providing the highest level of care. These include a new SonoSite ultrasound machine with three transducers, a Thermacor rapid transfuser, and a point-of-care machine to obtain lab results “pretty much instantly,” Dr. Cha said.

Other new devices include non-invasive, continuous blood-pressure monitoring and non-invasive pulse oximetry-based hemoglobin monitoring. 

There are also now more medication options available, Dr. Cha said, noting that the division has broadened the arsenal of medications used as analgesic adjuncts.

Future Efforts

There are additional improvements planned, Dr. Cha said, including point-of-care rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) for use on the labor and delivery floor. New patient educational videos in multiple languages should also be available later this year.

“Our maternal fetal medicine and obstetric teams are able to care for some of the most complex pregnant people because of the support, expertise, and collaboration from our highly skilled obstetric anesthesiology colleagues,” said Christina Han, MD, Interim Chair and Executive Medical Director of the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Division Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. “UCLA has always been a center of excellence for maternal care, and we are thrilled to see the team being recognized for the efforts.”