Published on July 26, 2010

HealthGrades Names the Family Birth Place at St. Luke’s Hospital a 5-Star Facility

The Family Birth Place at St. Luke’s Hospital is celebrating a big honor. HealthGrades has recognized the maternity program at St. Luke’s with its highest rating, 5-Stars for clinical quality. It is the only hospital in Jacksonville to receive the distinction.

The designation means the Family Birth Place at St. Luke’s Hospital offers patients some of the nation’s best maternity care, the top 15% to be exact.

“We are blessed to have a team of physicians and associates that place mothers and their babies’ safety as a top priority. Their caring collaboration has earned our ministry the highest recognition for patient care in Northeast Florida*”, said Moody Chisholm, CEO of St. Vincent's HealthCare.

HealthGrades is the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company.

Hospitals are evaluated using the following criteria:

• Maternal complication rate among women undergoing single live-born vaginal or C-section deliveries;
• Maternal complication rate among women undergoing “patient-choice” or non-clinically indicated C-sections;
• Newborn volume adjusted for low birth weight; and
• Newborn mortality rate stratified into eight birth weight categories.

*Northeast Florida defined as Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam and St. John’s Counties

The study rated each hospital with 1, 3 or 5 stars for its maternity care based on maternal complication rates and neonatal mortality rates. As a group, 5 star-rated hospitals had 51% fewer maternal complications for vaginal deliveries and 74% fewer maternal complications for C-sections when compared with hospitals rated with a 1-star rating.

The HealthGrades Maternity Care study can be found, along with the methodology, at www.healthgrades.com.