Dickinson County Healthcare receives 2021 Maternity Excellence Award

.

IRON MOUNTAIN -Dickinson County Healthcare is honored to be one of only 17 hospitals in  Michigan to receive the 2021 Maternity

Care Excellence Award.

For the last two years in a row, and three of the previous four years, Dickinson County Healthcare (DCH) has received the Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM) Maternity Care Excellence Award! The only UP hospital to receive the award, DCH has become the child birthing destination for the central Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin.

DCH Chief Executive Officer Chuck Nelson shared, “successfully delivering the highest quality prenatal and infant care to our community is our OB/GYN team’s primary goal. The Maternity Care Excellence Award is based purely on data and patient outcomes. It is an accurate description of the care a pregnant mother and her family will receive at DCH. Our OB/GYN team has

done an excellent job in successfully controlling the high-risk factors involved in pregnancy and delivering babies minimizing risk to both mother and child. Being the hospital that moms choose as the place where they want to give birth is the greatest compliment of all.”

The Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM), a nonprofit group comprised of Michigan’s largest employers and unions, awarded DCH based on the excellence and improvement in maternity care and delivery outcomes. Seventeen hospitals have earned an award or 2021, marking the fourth year for the awards.

The awards are part of EAM’s Maternity Care Project. Created in 2018, the project goals are to decrease the state’s infant mortality rate, reduce the rate of unnecessary C-sections, and be an educational resource for new and expecting parents residing in Michigan.

“The recipients of the Hospital Maternity Care Award demonstrate their dedication to giving newborns the best start to life,” said Bret Jackson, president of EAM. “Unnecessary cesarean sections and early elective deliveries are all linked to increased negative health outcomes and higher medical bills. These costs can be financially devastating to new parents and can trickle down to

employers as well.”

For the award, hospitals are evaluated in four areas: cesarean rates (≤ 29.3% of low-risk deliveries), episiotomy rates (≤ 5% of deliveries), elective early delivery rates (≤ 5% of deliveries), and maternity care processes (90% or greater). The data is from The Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based organization aiming to improve health care quality and safety for consumers and

purchasers.