8 GA Hospitals Named Among ‘Best’ For Maternity Care In New Report

GEORGIA — Eight hospitals in Georgia made the grade in a new ranking of the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care for 2023-24 released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

The ranking of 680 hospitals nationwide is a guide for parents making one of the most important decisions of their lives — where their baby will be born. Each hospital participating in the U.S. News survey received a scorecard describing their performance on a checklist of items parents look for when choosing where to have their baby.

Jennifer Winston, a health data scientist for U.S. News, said the top hospitals in the survey are those with a “high performing” designation for care given to patients with uncomplicated pregnancies. These hospitals had Cesarean Section rates of 26 percent or lower and newborn complication rates of 37 percent or lower, Winston explained in a news release.

Of the eight Georgia hospitals that participated in the U.S. News maternity services survey, the following received the high performing designation:

• Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Johns Creek

Emory is high performing in four adult specialties, including gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery and orthopedics. The hospital also performs highly in 10 procedures and conditions.

• Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, Athens

Piedmont is high performing in 10 procedures and conditions, including colon cancer surgery, heart attack, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, diabetes, kidney failure, stroke, maternity care (uncomplicated pregnancy), pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

New to the rankings this year is the inaugural “Maternity Care Access Hospitals” list, which highlights 73 hospitals providing services in what otherwise would be maternity care deserts that have “left millions of people without local access to maternity care” in some parts of the country, Winston said.

In Georgia, Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center was recognized as a Maternity Care Access Hospital. The facility performed highly in five procedures and conditions such as heart attack, heart failure, diabetes, kidney failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Other Georgia hospitals that completed the U.S. News survey but did not rank as “high performing” were Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center, Atrium Health Navicent Medical Center, Atrium Health Navicent-Baldwin, Emory Decatur Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown and Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

The hospitals are ranked on objective measures of quality. Including C-section rate, lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates, birthing-friendly practices and transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures. Read more about the methodology.