UMH Receives 2 Prestigious State Awards

The office of Texas Vital Statistics has recognized Uvalde Memorial Hospital (UMH) with 2 prestigious state awards. Norma Castro, birth registrar in the hospital’s health information management (HIM) department, accepted the Five Star Service Award from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ vital statistics unit and the Acknowledgement of Paternity Award from the Office of Attorney General.

The Five Star Service award is given to only those hospitals in the state that have met a list of criteria for qualification set by the vital statistics unit. Uvalde Memorial was placed in the Exemplary Winners category meeting 98.5% of criterion.  This year’s honor marked the 22^nd consecutive year the hospital has received the award.

Qualifications for the award include legal and statistical measurements on all birth registrations completed, timeliness of birth registrations of babies born at the hospital, and training standards of birth registrars at the facility. UMH recorded 336 births in the submission period for which 331 records were released within 5 days of the birth. Hospitals must also have been recipients of the Office of Attorney General Award for Acknowledgement of Paternity and Department of State Health Services ImmTrac Award for Excellence in 2023 to qualify.

The Office of Attorney General Award for Acknowledgement of Paternity was also received. To achieve the paternity acknowledgement criteria, birth registrars must complete the 71% state average or higher of potential Acknowledgement of Paternity (AOP) from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023.