16 IL Hospitals Named Among ‘Best’ For Maternity Care In New Report

ILLINOIS — Sixteen hospitals in Illinois 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 26 Illinois hospitals that participated in the U.S. News maternity services survey, the following received the high-performing designation:

• Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, Barrington
• Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago
• Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge
• Advocate Sherman Hospital, Elgin
• Advocate South Suburban Hospital, Hazel Crest
• Memorial Hospital of Carbondale
• Northshore University Health System-Metro Chicago
• Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights
• Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, Geneva
• Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, DeKalb
• Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital
• Northwestern Medicine-McHenry, Huntley, Woodstock Hospitals
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
• Rush Copley Medical Center, Aurora
• Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, Mattoon

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 Illinois Maternity Care Access Hospitals are:

• Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center
• Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital
• Northwestern Medicine McHenry, Huntley, Woodstock Hospitals

Other Illinois hospitals that completed the U.S. News survey, but did not rank as “high performing” were:

• Advocate Christ Medical Center
• Advocate Condell Medical Center
• Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital
• Advocate Trinity Hospital
• Alton Memorial Hospital
• Memorial Hospital, Belleville
• Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital
• Rush University Medical Saturday
• University of Chicago Medical Center
• University of Illinois 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.