These Are The Best Maternity Hospitals In Michigan: U.S. News List

MICHIGAN — Where their baby is born is one of the most important decisions parents make. In Michigan, 31 hospitals were ranked among the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care for 2022-23 released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

In the ranking of nearly 650 hospitals providing labor and delivery services, fewer than half received the “high performing” designation, the highest a hospital can receive for maternity care.

Of the 31 hospitals that participated in the maternity services survey, the following received the "high performing" designation:

• McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital
• Spectrum Health-Butterworth and Blodgett Campuses
• Spectrum Health United Hospital
• University of Michigan Health-Ann Arbor
• Beaumont Hospital-Farmington Hills
• Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial
• Beaumont Hospital-Grosse Pointe
• Spectrum Health Pennock
• Memorial Healthcare-Owosso
• Spectrum Health Zeeland Community Hospital

Each hospital participating in the survey received a scorecard describing their performance on a checklist of items parents look for when choosing where to have their baby.

Other Michigan hospitals that completed the U.S. News survey, but did not rank as "high performing" were:

• Beaumont Hospital-Wayne
• Ascension Borgess Hospital
• Ascension Genesys Hospital
• DMC Harper University Hospital
• MidMichigan Medical Center-Gratiot
• MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena
• Spectrum Health Lakeland Medical Center
• Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital
• Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn
• Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital
• Ascension Providence Hospital-Southfield
• Ascension St. John Hospital
• Sparrow Hospital
• Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital
• MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland
• Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital
• DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital
• Beaumont Hospital-Royal Oak
• Ascension St. Joseph Hospital-Tawas City
• Beaumont Hospital-Trenton
• Beaumont Hospital-Troy

U.S. News said relatively little information is readily available to the public about which hospitals are best at caring for expectant parents after an uncomplicated pregnancy.

The ranking differs from other hospital rankings in an important way: The patients at maternity hospitals are younger, so the data used in the rankings was collected individually from the hospitals, rather than through required Medicare reports.

The rankings are based on C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates and early elective delivery rates, among other factors.

This year for the first time as part of its methodology, U.S. News considered rates of episiotomy procedures (a small cut made at the vaginal opening to assist in difficult deliveries), rates of vaginal births of subsequent children after a Cesarean delivery, and whether hospitals met new federal criteria for “birthing-friendly” practices — a publicly reported, public-facing designation by the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity.

Also new this year, hospitals that tracked and reported their outcomes for patients of different races and ethnicities were rewarded in the rankings.

"Identifying racial disparities in maternity care is a vital step toward achieving health equity," Min Hee Seo, senior health data scientist at U.S. News, said in a news release.

"The new measures provide expectant parents with many important data points, such as whether hospitals implemented patient safety practices, to assist them in making a decision about where to receive maternity care," Seo said.