Nine Sutter Hospitals Honored for Efforts to Improve Maternity Care, Reduce C-Section Rates

In the United States, nearly one of three American babies enters the world through a surgical birth. For some mothers, cesarean deliveries (C-sections) can be the safest or only way to deliver a healthy newborn. However, some women undergo surgery for no medical reason, exposing both mother and baby to potentially avoidable complications.

As data shows C-section rates above national health goals, many hospitals in California have responded. One example is the Sutter Health system. Teams from its hospitals have implemented initiatives and best practices to reduce C-section rates among first-time moms with low-risk births.

Recently, nine Sutter hospitals earned recognition by the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC). The CMQCC acknowledges hospitals for going above and beyond to provide high quality, safe care to California's mothers, birthing people and newborns.

"Across our birthing centers, we promote evidence-based practices, and track and publicly report our C-section rates to continuously help drive improvements in maternity care," said Dr. William Isenberg, Sutter Health chief medical & quality officer. "We're proud of the work we've done to provide the best care possible for mothers and babies and are grateful to be honored for these efforts."

Sutter Health hospitals recognized in the annual CMQCC Quality and Engagement Awards, include:

Superstar Award: Large Birth Volume Hospitals

This award recognizes hospitals that exhibit high levels of engagement with the CMQCC Maternal Data Center (MDC).

• Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento

Quality & Sustainability Award: NTSV Cesarean Delivery Rate

Awarded to hospitals that met and maintained California's target rate for the NTSV (Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex) Cesarean Birth measure for three consecutive years.

• Sutter's Alta Bates Summit Medical Center
• Sutter's California Pacific Medical Center - Van Ness Campus
• Sutter Coast Hospital
• Sutter Davis Hospital
• Sutter Delta Medical Center
• Sutter's Eden Medical Center
• Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
• Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital

Quality & Sustainability Award: Quality Improvement Academy Collaborative Hospitals

Awarded to Q1 Academy-participating hospitals that met and maintained their target rate for their selected quality initiative.

• Sutter's Mills-Peninsula Medical Center

Currently, nearly all California birthing hospitals are active CMQCC members and are using the MDC to track maternity care performance and identify perinatal quality improvement opportunities. The Sutter Health system NTSV C-section Rate for a rolling 12 months ending May 2024 was 23.5%, below the California target rate of 23.6% as defined by the World Health Organization's Health People 2030 guidance.

In total, CMQCC recognized 116 hospitals for their accomplishments in 2023. To see a full list of this year's award winners and detailed descriptions of each award, please visit the CMQCC Awards page.