University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton has been recognized for the second time as High Performing in Maternity Care (Uncomplicated Pregnancy) by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals for Maternity Care. Among nearly 650 hospitals providing labor and delivery services nationwide, fewer than half received the “high performing” designation; in Maryland, UM Shore Medical Center at Easton was one of only five hospitals so designated.
Earning this recognition required the hospital 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 new federal criteria for birth-friendly practices, and how successfully the hospital supported breastfeeding.
From left are Angie Wicks, DNP, RNC-OB, Nurse Manager at The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton; Jenny Bowie, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Officer; Javier Cajina, MD, Medical Director for UM Shore Medical Group – Women’s Health and The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton; and Ken Kozel, President and Chief Executive Officer, UM Shore Regional Health.
“The Birthing Center and UM Shore Medical Group-Women’s Health teams deserve tremendous credit for maintaining this strong rating from U.S. News & World Report,” said Javier Cajina, MD, Medical Director for UM Shore Medical Group – Women’s Health and The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton.
On average, 1,000 babies a year are delivered at the hospital’s Birthing Center.
“It was such an honor to receive this designation for the second time,” said Angie Wicks, DNP, RNC-OB, Nurse Manager at The Birthing Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton.“It’s a reflection of the dedication our obstetrics providers, nurses and techs maintain as they provide quality patient care.”
In addition to continuing the focus on providing the highest quality patient experience, in just 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 – three certified nurse midwives and one nurse practitioner.
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
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
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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