Wisconsin Has 15 Of The Best Hospitals For Maternity Care: U.S. News

WISCONSIN — One of the most important decisions expectant parents can make is where to birth their baby. For burgeoning moms and dads in Wisconsin, 15 hospitals were ranked among the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care for 2022-23 released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

Nearly 650 hospitals across the country providing labor and delivery services saw rankings, but fewer than half received a designation of "high performing," the highest a hospital can get for maternity care.

Of the more than 20 Wisconsin hospitals that participated in the maternity services survey, 15 of them received the designation of "high performing" from U.S. News. Here they are:

• Aurora Medical Center-Kenosha.
• Aurora BayCare Medical Center.
• Aurora Medical Center-Summit.
• Aurora Medical Center-Grafton.
• Mayo Clinic Eau Claire.
• Aurora Lakeland Medical Center.
• Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse
• Marshfield Medical Center.
• Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital.
• Sauk Prairie Healthcare-Prairie Du Sac.
• Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center.
• Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
• Aurora West Allis Medical Center.
• Froedtert West Bend Hospital.
• Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire Hospital

Each hospital participating in the survey received a scorecard describing their performance on a checklist of items parents look for when choosing where to have their baby.

Other Wisconsin hospitals completed the U.S. News survey, but did not rank as “high performing."

U.S. News said relatively little information is readily available to the public about which hospitals are best at caring for expectant parents after an uncomplicated pregnancy.

The ranking differs from other hospital rankings in an important way: The patients at maternity hospitals are younger, so the data used in the rankings was collected individually from the hospitals, rather than through required Medicare reports.

The rankings are based on C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates and early elective delivery rates, among other factors.

This year for the first time as part of its methodology, U.S. News considered rates of episiotomy procedures (a small cut made at the vaginal opening to assist in difficult deliveries), rates of vaginal births of subsequent children after a Cesarean delivery, and whether hospitals met new federal criteria for “birthing-friendly” practices — a publicly reported, public-facing designation by the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.

Also new this year, hospitals that tracked and reported their outcomes for patients of different races and ethnicities were rewarded in the rankings.

“Identifying racial disparities in maternity care is a vital step toward achieving health equity,” Min Hee Seo, senior health data scientist at U.S. News, said in a news release.

“The new measures provide expectant parents with many important data points, such as whether hospitals implemented patient safety practices, to assist them in making a decision about where to receive maternity care,” Seo said.