UAB Hospital
Photography: Steve Wood was rated as “high-performing” — the highest level possible — in the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals for Maternity Care rankings.
“This recognition is a full reflection of the amazing quality of care and expertise that our nurses, staff, advanced practice providers and faculty provide every day,” said Warner Huh, M.D., chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “It’s truly gratifying to see this group be properly recognized for their selfless, compassionate work and strive to always put our patients and their families first. I look forward to the future and to establishing new programs and setting new standards for maternity care at UAB.”
A deeper dive into the survey data and methodology reveals that:
- Of the 649 hospitals that submitted maternity data to U.S. News this year, only 297 earned a high-performing rating.
- To achieve a high-performing rating, a hospital had to score significantly better than average across eight quality measures and have acceptable rates of cesarean sections, newborn complications and episiotomies.
- To improve upon the methodology used for last year’s inaugural edition of Best Hospitals for Maternity Care, the 2022-2023 assessments include four new measures, including the rates of vaginal births after cesarean and of episiotomies.
This distinction comes on the heels of UAB’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology program’s being ranked No. 5 in the nation — one of the highest rankings ever for a UAB Medicine specialty — in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report survey, which evaluated obstetrics and gynecology programs at 233 United States hospitals.