Eleven Network Hospitals Honored for Reducing C-Sections

California Health and Human Services award recognizes hospitals meeting national goal

Eleven hospitals in the Sutter Health Plus network were recognized by the California Health and Human Services Department (CHHS) for reducing cesarean section (C-section) births for first-time moms with low-risk pregnancies. The network hospitals were named to the state’s 2017 Hospital C-section Honor Roll.

The agency announced the honor roll recognition on behalf of Smart Care California, a coalition of public and private health care purchasers that collectively cover 16 million people statewide—or 40 percent of all Californians.

The following hospitals in the Sutter Health Plus network were named to the 2017 Hospital C-section Honor Roll:

• Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Berkeley
• Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley
• El Camino Hospital, Los Gatos
• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Palo Alto
• Joseph’s Medical Center, Stockton
• Sutter Davis Hospital
• Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center of Santa Cruz
• Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
• Sutter Roseville Medical Center
• Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital
• Sutter Solano Medical Center

Nearly one of three American babies enters the world through a surgical birth. Cesarean delivery is the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the United States. When complications arise during pregnancy, C-sections can save the lives of mothers and infants, but some women undergo the surgery for no medical reason, exposing both mother and baby to potentially avoidable complications.

Even for low-risk, first-birth pregnancies, there is a huge variation in hospital C-section rates. Rates in California hospitals range from less than 15 percent to more than 60 percent. To respond to the rise in unnecessary C-sections, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services adopted the Healthy People 2020 target of reducing nationwide C-section rates for low-risk, first-births to 23.9 percent. The Smart Care California honor roll acknowledge hospitals that have achieved—and in many cases gone beyond—that goal.