Women Who Give Birth at Top Hospitals Have 76 Percent Fewer Complications for C-Section, 52 Percent Fewer for Vaginal Birth
HealthGrades recognized 145 hospitals with a 2009/2010 Maternity Care Excellence AwardTM. This places these hospitals among the top 10% of all hospitals nationwide for maternity care.
These best-performing hospitals consistently outperformed all other hospitals for maternal complication indicators as well as the weight-stratified neonatal mortality indicator (the number of newborns who died while in the hospital, examined by birth weight). Because of these vast quality differences, women should take care to research quality prior to choosing the hospital where they will deliver their baby.
The difference in quality of care between maternity programs is substantial for both vaginal and C-section deliveries: the best-performing hospitals had 52% fewer maternal complications among women who had vaginal births compared to poor-performing hospitals and 76% fewer complications among women who had C-sections. Patient-choice C-sections had the largest difference at 84% between best- and poor-performing hospitals.
The HealthGrades Sixth Annual Women's Health in American Hospitals Study has found that if all hospitals, among the 19 states studied, performed at the level of the best-performing hospitals, 182,129 women may have avoided developing one or more inhospital major obstetrics complications.
Other Findings
- Complication rates have decreased between 2005 and 2007 for vaginal delivery and C-section, including patient-choice C-section. However, the rate of improvement is higher in five-star rated hospitals compared with one-star rated hospitals.
- Best-performing hospitals had a 56% lower weight-stratified neonatal mortality compared to poor-performing hospitals.
- C-section rates average approximately 32% among the 19 states studied.
- Quality inconsistencies are seen when comparing states; those with the lowest complication rates have almost half the complications compared with states that had the highest complication rates.
HealthGrades analyzed approximately 13 million hospital delivery and neonate records from 2005 through 2007 in more than 1,500 hospitals in 19 all-payer states for this study.