St. Mary’s Medical Center Recognized as a Top Birth Care Center

Award demonstrates St. Mary’s excellence in providing health services for women and the 3,000+ babies delivered each year 

West Palm Beach, Fla. (August 5, 2015) – St. Mary’s Medical Center earns the Healthgrades 2015 Labor and Delivery Excellence Award for its commitment to providing superior care for women during childbirth. The distinction, which was based on mortality and complication outcomes from 2011-2013, places St. Mary’s within the top 5% in the country for labor and delivery care.

“We are proud to be the only hospital in Palm Beach County to obtain this award and level of recognition for our exceptional maternity services,” said hospital CEO Davide Carbone. “This recognition is proof of our longstanding dedication to offering high-quality, family-centered care for mothers and babies in our community.”

Healthgrades is one of the leading online resources for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. For the report, Healthgrades analyzed patient outcome data for virtually every hospital in the states that provide all-payer state data for years 2011 through 2013.

“For many people, selecting a hospital for the birth of one’s child is the first healthcare decision made as parents, and a time to access important information to lower your risk of having a complication or outcome that can lengthen your hospital stay,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “Consumers can have confidence that those hospitals recognized as a Healthgrades 2015 Labor and Delivery Excellence Award recipient have demonstrated an established commitment to maternal care.”

To receive the Labor and Delivery Excellence Award, St. Mary’s Medical Center was analyzed on its performance of two types of delivery methods – vaginal and caesarean section. Healthgrades assessed these procedures and gave the hospital a rating based on evaluation of the risk adjusted actual complication rate to the predicted complication rate. An overall performance score was then calculated.

Healthgrades found that the variation in hospital performance makes a significant difference in clinical outcomes:

• From 2011-2013, if all hospitals included in this analysis, as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving the Labor and Delivery Excellence Award, on average, 92,883 patients experiencing one or more in-hospital complications could potentially have been avoided.
• From 2011-2013, patients treated in hospitals receiving the Labor and Delivery Excellence Award have, on average, a 35.1% lower risk of experiencing a complication while in the hospital than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the Labor and Delivery Excellence Award.

The Birthplace at St. Mary’s Medical Center has been delivering babies for more than 75 years. The hospital’s 45-bed Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has the highest designation possible by the state and is one of just four designated Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Centers in South Florida. St. Mary’s also has a dedicated team available 24/7 for the transport of newborns and pediatric patients from other hospitals, clinics and emergency departments. The hospital offers comprehensive childbirth education and tours of The Birthplace. Expecting parents can learn more and register for a free tour by calling (561) 882-9100.