"I was looking for statistics on medical outcomes and discovered the Seton safety initiative. That’s why I chose to deliver at Seton."
Jules Elkins – Mother of Eli
University of Texas environmental health economist Jules Elkins did her homework on health outcomes and evidence-based medical practices.
As an older mom, she became concerned about her third pregnancy and started researching hospital safety statistics online, where she discovered Seton’s safety initiatives for mothers and babies. “There are precious few metrics available to judge quality in healthcare. With Seton, there is actual evidence," she said. “I thought that if Seton was so concerned about safety in Labor & Delivery, they were probably concerned about safety throughout the hospital.”
Because she wasn’t feeling as well as she had with her other children, she also wanted a top Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and adult ICU, in case complications developed. When she was admitted with extremely high blood pressure and the baby was just 28 weeks old, her research paid off.
“I had a good, supportive doctor in Dr. Diana Weihs, who was part of the safety initiative from the start. We were able to hold off the delivery for five days so the baby could grow, until we couldn’t wait any longer. “ After the delivery, it took another five days before her blood pressure had stabilized enough so that she could visit her baby in the NICU.
The first weeks were terrifying. “They’re so tiny, and you’re just waiting for every test,” she recalls. She appreciated that the nurses taught her and her husband how to care for their baby in his fragile state. “It’s empowering, so you don’t feel so out of control,” she said. “Against all odds, the NICU turned out to be a positive experience as our baby’s development took a benign course after the first few weeks. I left there with friends among the staff.”
After 11 weeks, the baby came home “on a growth tear.” Her advice: “Do your research. You need to have an interest in outcomes and how they matter. Medicine is certainly an art as well as a science. Finding a place that can balance those two things well is important.”