How Safe is U.S. Maternity Care? New Report Shows Considerable Variation in Quality, Outcomes

News provided by

Stern & Associates (on behalf of the Leapfrog Group)

Feb 23, 2015, 08:00 ET

Washington, DC (PRWEB) February 23, 2015 -- Nonprofit watchdog The Leapfrog Group today released its Maternity Care Report, an in-depth examination of hospital quality and safety for early elective deliveries, episiotomies and high-risk deliveries, with data analysis by Castlight Health. Though the analysis of hospitals nationwide demonstrates substantial progress in recent years, it also reveals significant room for improvement on maternity care standards. In fact, less than a third of hospitals meet Leapfrog’s standard for high-risk deliveries of very low birth weight babies, while rates of episiotomies are still too high at 35 percent of birthing hospitals.

Key findings from the Maternity Care Report include:

  • Many hospitals fail to meet standard for high-risk deliveries: The national rate of hospitals meeting the standard for high-risk deliveries remains dangerously low, with only 24.4 percent of hospitals meeting Leapfrog’s standard, indicating too many very low birth weight babies are born in hospitals unprepared to care for their special needs.
  • Early elective deliveries continue to decline across the U.S.: The national average for early elective deliveries—inductions or cesarean (C-section) procedures performed before 39 weeks gestation without medical necessity—hit its lowest rate since Leapfrog began public reporting on the measure: 3.4 percent. That is down from 4.6 percent in 2013 and 17 percent in 2010.
  • However, some hospitals maintain high rates of early elective deliveries: While nearly 750 reporting hospitals achieved the Leapfrog standard for early elective deliveries, hospitals in some regions of the country consistently perform too many of these procedures.
  • Episiotomy rates are improving: Sixty-five percent of hospitals achieved the target rate of 12 percent or less for episiotomies—a once routine incision made in the birth canal during childbirth that is now recommended only for a narrow set of cases.
  • However, considerable variation in episiotomy rates exists: As with early elective deliveries, there’s an unhealthy amount of variation in the episiotomy data, with 35 percent of birthing hospitals still permitting too many episiotomies. At the advice of its Maternity Care Expert Panel, Leapfrog’s 2015 target rate will change to five percent to encourage further improvement. Only 27 percent of hospitals would meet this new target rate today.

“The Maternity Care Report reveals that hospitals are making continued gains in the quality of maternity care offered, yet the data also demonstrates that there is substantial room for improvement,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of Leapfrog. “For many employers, labor and delivery account for nearly 25 percent of all hospitalizations, which makes these maternity metrics extremely valuable, as they have the power to help employees make smart health care choices.”

“Castlight is pleased to partner with The Leapfrog Group on this important series of hospital quality and safety reports, applying our advanced analytics capabilities to Leapfrog’s rich data set,” said Jennifer Schneider, M.D., M.S., Chief Medical Officer for Castlight Health. “Maternity care is top of mind for both employees and employers. It is one of the most common employee searches in Castlight’s Enterprise Healthcare Cloud platform, and maternity and newborn care can be costly for employers. The data comparisons outlined among hospitals in the Maternity Care Report can inform quality improvement programs in hospitals across the country, driving the movement toward more value-based care.”

The complete Maternity Care Report is available online. Other publicly available resources include:

Today’s report is the first in a series of six reports examining key quality and safety measures at hospitals nationwide based on data from the 2014 Leapfrog Hospital Survey of 1,501 U.S. hospitals and analysis provided by Castlight Health. Future publications in the report series will be available at leapfroggroup.org/HospitalSurveyReport

About The Leapfrog Group:
National nonprofit watchdog The Leapfrog Group evaluates and reports on the safety and quality performance of U.S. hospitals for the benefit of consumers, employers and other health care purchasers. Leapfrog is deeply committed to increasing transparency among health care providers in order to achieve its goal of reducing the estimated 440,000 annual deaths from unnecessary hospital errors. Findings and data from the flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey allow purchasers of health care to structure contracts and purchasing toward the highest performing hospitals, while providing consumers with potentially lifesaving information on hospital quality. The biannual Hospital Safety Score, which assigns letter grades to hospitals based on how safe they are for patients, empowers consumers to search for a local ‘A’ hospital for their life-long health care needs.

About Castlight Health:
Castlight Health, Inc. is the leader in Enterprise Healthcare Management. We believe great healthcare builds great business and U.S. enterprises can gain control over the $620 billion spent annually on healthcare, transforming a crippling cost into a strategic business advantage. Recognized as a top 2014 software platform by the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, Castlight’s Enterprise Healthcare Cloud enables employers to understand and manage all their healthcare investments while helping employees make the best possible healthcare decisions. Castlight is a great place to work, honored with a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice award and recognized by Rock Health for Diversity in Leadership. For more information visit castlighthealth.com. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and Like us on Facebook. Source: Castlight Health.

Castlight Health is the registered trademark of Castlight Health, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Lauren Bercarich, Stern & Associates (on behalf of the Leapfrog Group), +1 908-325-3860, [email protected]