Two LVHN Hospitals Named Among Best Hospitals for Maternity Care

Two Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) hospitals are being recognized among the best hospitals in the nation – and the only hospitals in the region – for offering compassionate and quality care to new mothers and infants.

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Cedar Crest and LVH–Pocono are among the list of Best Hospitals for Maternity Care for 2022 released by Money, in partnership with The Leapfrog Group. The list consists of 259 hospitals that meet care and safety standards based on data gathered and analyzed by The Leapfrog Group.

“I am incredibly proud of this achievement because it reflects our colleagues’ commitment to excellent care,” says Amanda Flicker, MD, Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “Being recognized among the top maternity care hospitals in the country shows that our physicians and nurses who work in maternity care prioritize the health and safety of infants, new mothers and their families.”

To qualify for this list, hospitals are required to receive A or B letter grades for hospital safety from The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety assessment for spring 2022.

Opens in new tab Money’s methodology requires hospitals to meet maternity care standards for the following:

• Early elective deliveries – Leapfrog’s standard for early elective deliveries is 5% or less.
• Cesarean birth – Hospitals that meet Leapfrog’s standard must achieve Healthy People 2030 nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex (NTSV) cesarean birthrate target of 23.6% or less.
• Episiotomy ­– Hospitals must achieve an episiotomy rate of 5% or less.
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis – To meet Leapfrog’s safety standard, hospitals must be 90% or more compliant with providing DVT prophylaxis to women who undergo cesarean deliveries.
• Bilirubin screening – Hospitals must be 90% or more compliant with screening for bilirubin for all infants.
• High-risk deliveries – Hospitals that met this standard electively admit high-risk deliveries and care for at least 50 or more very low birth weight babies per year or have better than expected performance on Vermont Oxford Network’s measure of death or morbidity.

Hospitals included in this year’s list of Best Hospitals for Maternity Care offer a range of services including care for uncomplicated pregnancies and high-risk deliveries.