Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City has been named a Best Hospital for Maternity by U.S. News & World Report for its dedication to providing high quality, safe delivery experiences for mothers and babies. This is the second independent organization this year to name Mercy Oklahoma City a “best maternity hospital.”
Mercy Oklahoma City is one of the 237 hospitals on the U.S. News & World Report inaugural ranking of Best Hospitals for Maternity. That places Mercy among the top 10% of more than 2,700 hospitals across the country that offer maternity services.
Earlier this year, Newsweek and The Leapfrog Group, an independent watchdog group, together named Mercy in Oklahoma City to its list of Best Maternity Hospitals for 2021.
“Our Mercy Birthplace team is laser focused on best practices and the needs of our patients, and this recognition as a best maternity hospital reflects their dedication,” said Dr. Chad Smith, Mercy OB-GYN and chief medical officer. “Our care team provides compassionate care and a special experience for patients welcoming babies into the world which has led to exponential growth in the number of moms choosing to deliver at Mercy.”
The hospital’s labor and delivery and postpartum services have been at capacity for years, limiting Mercy’s ability to serve more patients. Work is underway on the new Love Family Women’s Center on the campus of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. The 175,000-square-foot, four-story facility, expected to open in fall 2023, will serve women and children. When construction is complete, the facility will have a total of 73 patient rooms, increasing the capacity for deliveries by 40%.
The Best Hospitals for Maternity evaluation examines hospital data relating to uncomplicated pregnancies (non high-risk pregnancies) and five different factors: scheduled early deliveries, C-section rates in low-risk women, newborn complications, rate of exclusive breast milk feeding and the option for vaginal births after a cesarean.
“All families deserve to be informed on how hospitals perform on key indicators of quality, which is why U.S. News has compiled and published a trove of maternal health data from hospitals across the country,” said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News & World Report. “Hospitals that performed well had fewer newborn complications, fewer early deliveries and fewer C-sections compared to other hospitals across the nation.”
Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Missouri was the only other Mercy hospital named to the Best Hospitals for Maternity list.
For more information about the Best Hospitals for Maternity, please refer to the U.S. News methodology. The full list of Best Hospitals for Maternity is available here.