University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton has been recognized for the third time as High Performing in Maternity Care (Uncomplicated Pregnancy) by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals for Maternity Care. From left are Ken Kozel, President and CEO, UM Shore Regional Health; Pam Callahan, RN, Birthing Center nurse; Palak Doshi, DO, OB/GYN; certified nurse midwife Laruen Rosales, CNM, MSN; Tara Clark, BSN, Birthing Center nurse; Carol Roger, BSN, Birthing Center Nurse; Jenny Bowie, MBA, BSN, RN, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Officer; Karen Denny, RN, Birthing Center nurse and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner; Jessica Genrich, MBA, RNC, Interim Nurse Manager, the Birthing Center at UM SRH; Erin Weishaar, MSN, RN, Birthing Center nurse; Aymee Gonzalez, BSN, Birthing Center nurse; and Javier Cajina, MD, OB/GYN.
EASTON, Md. (December 14, 2023) – UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, a University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) hospital, has been recognized for the third consecutive time as High Performing in Maternity Care (Uncomplicated Pregnancy) by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.
U.S. News evaluated hospitals from across the nation that provide labor and delivery services and submitted detailed data to the publication for analysis; 680 hospitals, an all-time high, participated in this year’s U.S. News survey. Fewer than half – 46 percent – of all hospitals that offer maternity care and participated in the survey received a High Performing designation. In Maryland, UM Shore Medical Center at Easton was one of only three hospitals so designated.
“Our Birthing Center and UM Shore Medical Group – Women’s Health teams deserve tremendous credit for achieving this accomplishment and maintaining this excellent ranking for the third year in a row,” said Ken Kozel, President and CEO, UM SRH. “This ranking speaks to the dedication of all our team members and our alignment across the University of Maryland Medical System toward becoming a High Reliability Organization, which is a priority for each and every one of us.”
Earning this recognition required UM Shore Medical Center at Easton to excel on quality metrics that matter to expectant families, including newborn complication rates, C-sections among lower-risk pregnancies, early elective delivery rates, the hospital’s ability to meet federal criteria for birth-friendly practices, transparency on racial/ethnic disparities and how successfully the hospital supports breastfeeding, among other measures.
“Hospitals that receive a High Performing designation as part of Best Hospitals for Maternity Care meet a high standard in caring for parents with uncomplicated pregnancies,” said Jennifer Winston, Health Data Scientist at U.S. News. “These hospitals have C-section rates that are 26 percent lower and newborn complication rates that are 37 percent lower than unrecognized hospitals.
On average, nearly 1,000 babies a year are delivered at the hospital’s Birthing Center. In an effort to enhance quality, safety and patient experience, UM SRH now has OB/GYN physicians on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The hospital also has 24/7/365 anesthesia coverage and pediatric hospitalist doctors in the hospital around the clock to provide support to Birthing Center staff, mothers and their newborns.
“We are extremely proud to win this recognition for a third year,” said Jessica Genrich, MBA, RNC, Interim Nurse Manager of the Birthing Center. “This honor highlights Shore Regional Health’s commitment to providing the highest-quality maternity care to our Eastern Shore families. It also reflects the dedication of our providers, nurses and techs working diligently each day to deliver compassionate, evidence-based care that prioritizes the health and safety of every mother and baby.”
In addition to continuing the focus on providing the highest quality patient experience, in the past year, UM Shore Medical Group-Women’s Health has expanded access to obstetric, maternity and the full continuum of women’s health care by adding four new providers – two UM School of Medicine providers (a perinatologist who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and also a gynecologic oncologist), a certified nurse midwife and a nurse practitioner.
Parents-to-be can research their local hospitals’ performance metrics for free at health.usnews.com to help them choose where to have their baby.
For information about The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, visit umshoreregional.org/birthing. UM Shore Medical Group – Women’s Health can be reached by calling 410-820-4888.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 400 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/shore.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
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