National hospital watchdog The Leapfrog Group has released a new report on maternity care in hospitals around the country, and found many of them too often rely on C-sections for births. That includes Corewell Health Lakeland in St. Joseph. In fact, the report finds Corewell to be among the lowest scoring hospitals in Michigan in that regard.
Leapfrog Director of Healthcare Ratings Katie Stewart tells us the organization has set a target of 23.6% of births among low-risk, first-time mothers being done by C-section, knowing some births have to be performed that way. However, it advises avoiding the procedures when possible because it comes with risks.
“They’re a major surgical procedure,” Stewart said. “They carry risks like infection, blood clots, longer recovery times, and complications in future pregnancies.”
C-sections can also have an impact on the baby.
An analysis by MLive shows with the Leapfrog target of 23.6% for C-sections, the group has found Corewell Health Lakeland in St. Joseph at 30.5%, placing it among the state’s 16 lowest scoring hospitals.
Stewart says many factors can contribute to one hospital using more C-sections than another.
“Hospitals where labor and delivery rooms are closer to operating rooms, they tend to have higher C-section rates simply because of convenience of performing a C-section even when a vaginal delivery might still be feasible. It’s certainly influenced by staffing, so we see higher C-sections in hospitals with lower nurse staffing levels.”
And Stewart says there is a racial disparity, with one in five hospitals showing a disparity between non-Hispanic Black patients and non-Hispanic white patients.
Interestingly enough, although Corewell in St. Joseph has a relatively high C-section rate among low-risk first-time mothers, Corewell Health Lakeland in Niles has one of the lowest in the state, at 5.9%.
Stewart says Leapfrog Group recommends hospitals carefully report such data and compare themselves to other hospitals around them to lower those rates. She says the culture in a given hospital could also contribute to the C-section rate.
