Medical Center Hospital, Odessa, TX, has received a Five-Star Rating from HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

Wide gaps in quality outcomes for maternity care persist, according to a new study released by HealthGrades. The Sixth Annual HealthGrades Women’s Health in American Hospitals study analyzes patient outcomes for maternity care and inhospital treatment of 16 other procedures/diagnoses concerning women’s health.

Study findings include the following:

• 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.
• If all hospitals, among the 19 states studied, performed at the level of the best-performing hospitals from 2005 through 2007, 182,129 women may have avoided developing one or more inhospital major obstetrics complications.
• 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.

“Choosing the hospital where you will have your baby is a major decision in a woman’s life,” said Dr. Rick May, senior physician consultant with HealthGrades and a study co-author. “This study highlights the differences in quality between hospitals and gives women information to make an informed choice about where they will have their baby.”

In the study, 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 and identified 218 hospitals as being five-star rated in maternity care.

The full study can be found at www.healthgrades.com.