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Quick Facts:
Springfield
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, named Mercy Hospital Springfield as a 2024 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care (uncomplicated pregnancy). This is the highest award a hospital can earn for U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.
"I’m incredibly proud of our labor and delivery team,” said David Argueta, president of Mercy Springfield Communities. “First we earned our second Leapfrog A grade for patient safety, and now our team is recognized as a top performing maternity hospital. I’m constantly impressed with our co-workers and their dedication to our patients.”
Best Hospitals for Maternity Care is an annual evaluation designed to assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity care that best meets their family’s needs.
Mercy Hospital Springfield earned a high performing designation in recognition of maternity care as measured by factors such as newborn complication rates. To earn the award of high performing, Mercy Hospital Springfield met the following criteria: Mercy rarely schedules deliveries earlier than recommended, minimizes avoidable C-sections and newborn complications are slightly rarer than average.
Reducing the number of C-sections has been a primary goal for Mercy Springfield’s labor and delivery team. “We have done a ton of work over the past few years to decrease our C-section rates,” said Jennifer Murray, Mercy’s director of nursing and women’s and children’s services. “Our goal was to be at 30% or below. We are at 23.9%, which is outstanding.”
When it comes to deliveries, Mercy Hospital Springfield is on track to deliver more babies than any year since 2016. From January 1 to November 30, 2023, Mercy Springfield delivered 2,835 babies, and as the U.S. News award signals, newborn complications were rare. "This is huge,” Murray said. “This speaks to the excellent maternity care our moms receive. If you receive care and delivery at Mercy Hospital Springfield, you are less likely to have a baby that requires a neonatal intensive care unit stay.”
U.S. News evaluated 680 hospitals from across the nation, and fewer than half – 46% – of all hospitals that offer maternity care and participated in the survey received a high performing designation. Parents-to-be can research their local hospitals’ performance metrics for free at health.usnews.com to help them choose where to have their baby.
