Evansville Birthnetwork

Interested in knowing your hospital's cesarean rate?

The Indiana State Department of Health publishes yearly hospital discharge data.  The reports include information on each hospital stay for all kinds of conditions.  Although the reports are made public, they are in no way user friendly for the average person.  I have gone through the data using Microsoft Access and calculated cesarean rates for each hospital in the state for 2010.  I have listed the cesarean rates in an Excel file here-

Indiana Hospital Cesarean Rates 2010

Some highlights:

• The cesarean rate for Indiana was 31.4%.  There were 81,380 births in Indiana in 2010.

• The hospital with the highest cesarean rate was Scott Memorial Hospital, with a rate of 57.8%.
• The hospital with the lowest cesarean rate was St. Elizabeth Medical Center with a rate of 14.3%.
• 5 hospitals had cesarean rates lower than 20%.
• 2 hospitals had rates higher than 50%.*

• Local hospitals-
• St. Mary's Medical Center's cesarean rate was 39.6%.
• The Women's Hospital's cesarean rate was 35.9%.
• Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes had a 25.5% cesarean rate.
• Memorial Hospital in Jasper had a 34.9% cesarean rate.
• Daviess Community Hospital in Washington had a 24.0% cesarean rate.
  

*I am not including information for hospitals that had less than 5 births.

Want to lower your chance of having a cesarean?  Read 10 Tips for Avoiding a First-Time Cesarean.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services makes information on hospitals' quality indicators and rates of utilization of certain procedures on its website.  This information includes number of cesareans performed, cesarean rates, VBAC rates, and cesarean rates for first time mothers.  To see the information on their website, go here:

Kentucky 2010 Quality Indicators: Childbirth 

It can be difficult to sift through all the data available on that website.  It includes information on all types of condtions and procedures.  So I have gathered some of the info parents and birth advocates may be interested in.  I have taken the information for risk-adjusted cesarean rates, risk-adjusted VBAC rates and risk-adjusted cesarean rates for first time mothers and put them into an Excel spreadsheet.  I also took the information from that website on the number of cesarean performed at each hospital and divided it by the number of births at each hospital (found here on page 61) to calculate the actual cesarean rate.  I was curious how the actual rates and the risk-adjusted rates compared.  For most hospitals, the risk-adjusted rates were 1-3% lower than the actual rates.

Kentucky Hospital Cesarean Rates 2010 (Excel Spreadsheet)

Some highlights from the data-

• Kentucky's cesarean rate in 2010 was 36.2%. 

• The hospital with the highest cesarean rate is Paul B. Hall Regional Medical Center with a 71.0% cesarean rate.  The hospital's VBAC rate was 0%.

• The hospital with the second highest rate is Three Rivers Medical Center with a 66.3% rate.
• 
  
• The Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) rate for Kentucky is 4.3%.  In other words, 95.7% of women who have a cesarean and then have another birth have a repeat cesarean.  The University of Louisville Hospital has the highest VBAC rate at 11.6%.
• 20.6% of first time moms gave birth by cesarean in Kentucky.

• Hospitals in our area-
• Methodist Hospital in Henderson had a 43.4% cesarean rate and a 1.3% VBAC rate.  21.7% of first time moms gave birth by cesarean
• Owensboro Medical Health System Inc. had a 42.6% cesarean rate and a 1.5% VBAC rate.  23% of first time moms gave birth by cesarean.
• Regional Medical Center in Madisonville had a 40.8% cesarean rate and a 8.9% VBAC rate.  25.9% of first time moms gave birth by cesarean.

For information on lowering your risk of having a cesarean or on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC), visit our Cesarean Awareness page.

The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit organization that compares hospitals on national standards of safety and quality, released a Call to Action this week: Protect Mothers and Babies from Unnecessary Harm.  From the press release:

The employer-driven hospital quality watchdog, The Leapfrog Group, issued a Call to Action in response to its new data finding that thousands of babies are electively scheduled for delivery too early, resulting in a higher likelihood of death, being admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and life-long health problems.

The group asked hospitals across the country to voluntarily report their rates of early elective births- inductions or cesareans without a medical indication happening before 39 weeks gestation.  The rates are out of births occurring between 37-39 weeks.   Some hospitals had a rate of zero, showing that it is possible to avoid early elective births all together.  Other hospitals had rates of 50% or higher.

The March of Dimes lists these possible complications for babies born too soon:

• the baby's organs might not be fully developed
• the baby can develop vision and hearing problems that last throughout life
• the baby can have a low birthweight, which leads to problems staying warm
  
• the baby may have problems eating and breathing at the same time, which makes it difficult to gain weight

The Leapfrog Group released this list of hospitals and their rates of early elective births.  You are encouraged to use the information when deciding where to give birth.  If your hospital chose not to respond, consider writing them a letter and telling them the public needs access to this information. 

From Leapfrog's press release:

“Hospitals, health plans, providers, and communities need to do more to protect women and babies from this harmful practice,” said Leapfrog CEO Leah Binder. “And women need to protect themselves by refusing to schedule their deliveries before 39 weeks without a sound medical reason, and by knowing the facts about the hospitals they plan to deliver in.” She noted that currently only hospitals that report to Leapfrog’s annual hospital survey are making their rates of early elective deliveries public. “Every hospital should publicly report on their rate and actively prevent the practice, and every woman planning to give birth should demand the information,” Binder added.