The Family Birthplace of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park has been recognized by Newsweek as one of the United States’ best maternity hospitals of 2022 – a distinction it was also awarded in 2021. West Suburban is one of 350 hospitals to receive this recognition this year.
“We are proud and honored to again earn this outstanding national distinction for our Family Birthplace center at West Suburban,” West Suburban CEO Barbara Martin said in a news release.
“We’ve built an outstanding reputation as one of the most innovative labor and delivery centers in the metropolitan area to guarantee expectant mothers the safest and most satisfying birth experience possible,” she wrote.
In collaboration with data firm Statista, Newsweek evaluated maternity wards across the country based on three different data sources: a nationwide online survey where hospital managers and maternity healthcare providers were asked to recommend maternity hospitals; medical key performance indicator data related to maternity care, such as a hospital’s rate of births via cesarean section; and patient satisfaction data.
This year, Newsweek categorized each of the 350 hospitals by performance, awarding five and four ribbons to each institution on the list. Out of the 350 maternity hospitals listed, 161 received a performance category of five ribbons and 189 received four ribbons. West Suburban received a four-ribbon designation in 2022. No such ribbon performance category system existed in 2021.
West Suburban Medical Center has been in the news quite a bit of late, due to its impending sale to Resilience Healthcare in a package deal that includes West Suburban’s River Forest campus, Chicago’s Weiss Hospital Memorial Hospital and Weiss’s medical office building.
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the sale of the two hospitals, currently owned by Pipeline Health System, on June 7. The state board’s approval is a critical step in the process of changing ownership but not the final step, according to Pipeline spokesperson Jane Brust.
“This is not a done deal; this is an ongoing process,” Brust told Wednesday Journal earlier this month. “The state review board approval this week was a huge step forward and we’re grateful that the board members acknowledge the importance of these hospitals to their communities.”
West Suburban’s Family Birthplace maternity ward boasts 12 private birthing suites for labor, delivery and recovery with 20 private rooms for postpartum recovery, as well as a large midwifery program. The hospital partners with Lurie Children’s Hospital to connect premature infants and severely ill babies directly to the most advanced care. Lurie neonatologists are on staff at West Suburban Medical Center’s Level II Nursery, according to the news release.
CONTACT: stacey@oakpark.com
