Steps to Re-Designation
There are general steps which will come up in the process of Re-Designating your facility. The process starts 12 to 18 months prior to the re-designation site assessment visit. These steps include but are not limited to:
- Document Submission
- Phone Interview
- Site Audit
- On-Site Assessment
Facilities due for a site assessment after Oct 31, 2018 are required to follow the 2016 Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria. There are new training requirements for hospital personnel as well as nurses and providers who provide maternity care. These include:
- Pharmacists
- Radiologists
- Anesthesiologists
- Social workers
- Discharge planners
- Dietary staff
- Housekeeping staff
If you have staff members who have been at your facility since 2015, they may need a skills and knowledge refresher to pass the latest round of audits. 
Hopefully, these staff members are now your champions and show new personnel “how things are done at a Baby-Friendly facility.” Some hospitals use in-house personnel to deliver the didactic training. Others have found it more cost effective to use FirstLatch online education to train their nurses in the 20 hour curriculum and providers in the three hour training.
Hospitals who require all staff members to have a basic understanding of the Baby-Friendly principles can view our BFHI overview video which is available in English and Spanish versions. This is a free online video, click on the image to the right to be taken to this valuable resource.
Click Here for a quote on bringing this training to your facility.