Orlando Health South Lake Hospital Named to U.S. News & World Report 2024 Best Hospitals for Maternity Care

Clermont, FL (Dec. 5, 2023) – U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, has named Orlando Health South Lake Hospital as a 2024 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care (Uncomplicated Pregnancy). This is the highest award a hospital can earn for U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.

Best Hospitals for Maternity Care is an annual evaluation designed to assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity care that best meets their family’s needs.

Orlando Health South Lake earned a High Performing designation in recognition of maternity care as measured by factors such as newborn complication rates and is the only hospital in Lake County to earn this achievement. The hospital was also named as a 2024 Maternity Care Access Hospital, an inaugural designation that recognizes 73 “Maternity Care Access Hospitals” across the nation. These essential hospitals provide quality care to expectant parents who wouldn’t otherwise have access to maternity care and serve communities that would otherwise be maternity care deserts.

“Maternity care is crucial in order for a community to thrive for generations to come, which is why it’s a key part of our services and an area we have significantly expanded on and invested in,” said Lance Sewell, senior vice president of Orlando Health North Central Florida region and president of Orlando Health South Lake Hospital. “We at Orlando Health South Lake are deeply honored to achieve this mark of excellence. Our dedicated team takes pride in nurturing this precious, pivotal time for expectant and new mothers and their families.”

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% – of all hospitals that offer maternity care and participated in the survey received a High Performing designation.

“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% lower, and newborn complication rates that are 37% lower than unrecognized hospitals. 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.”

The U.S. News Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality, such as C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates, birthing-friendly practices and transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a private, not-for-profit healthcare organization with $9.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level I Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level II Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows.

The 3,429-bed system includes 29 hospitals and emergency departments – 25 of which are currently operational with four coming soon. The system also includes nine specialty institutes, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility under the management of Acadia Healthcare, and more than 375 outpatient facilities that include physician clinics, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. More than 4,750 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 27,000 team members and more than 1,500 physicians.

In FY 23, Orlando Health cared for 197,000 inpatients and 6.6 million outpatients.  The healthcare system provided nearly $1.3 billion in total impact to the communities it serves in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 22, the most recent period for which this information is available.

Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.