Number of Hospital Beds and JCAHO

Just to clarify, JCAHO does not set the standard of what staffing should 
be. Proffessional organinations do. Currently IBCLC's in Hospital 
Practice have no staffing guidelines. 2 years ago at ILCA I did an 
informal survey of 55 participants of the Hospital Special Interest 
Group ( US participants). On average there were 2.35 IBCLC's per 3393 
deliveries per yr. Variables that skewed the results were that some 
NICU's and OP services staff IBCLC coverage separately. The range 
included one hospital with 1 IBCLC FTE for 7200 deliveries a year and a 
hospital with 2.5 IBCLC FTE for 420 deliveries a year.
The California Nurses Association and AWHONN have staffing 
reccomendations for  LD and MBU units, that data is what JCAHO and 
auditing organizations  use (the bean counters-the ones that recommend 
to cut IBCLC positions);   What WE can do is join ILCA and your local 
affiliate encourage them to conduct a national survey on IBCLC's in 
Hospitals, then we would have meat to practice with.
I also gathered information on what  we "do" at work it is exhausting 
and shows clearly what an IBCLC is capable of doing. I also feel 
strongly that we should also look at how non-US IBCLC's practice in 
hospitals, this may show things that the US IBCLC"s can do better.
So I know I said this before, please join your professional organization 
which is ILCA.

Best Regards
Karen Querna, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Spokane WA USA

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