C-Section & Episiotomy Rates in the North/Northwest Chicago Suburbs

I was curious about the c-section and episiotomy rates for the closest hospitals to me, so I looked them up. These are (as far as I can tell) all of the hospitals within a 20-mile radius of me that have maternity wards. Episiotomy and cesarean section were the two interventions that I most wished to avoid in birthing my son back in September 2013, so I wondered how the hospitals in my area stood on those. [1]

2012 c-section rates come from CesareanRates.com. [2] Episiotomy rates come from the Leapfrog Group; I believe the statistics were last gathered in Fall 2013, but I’m not sure. The Leapfrog Group recommends that hospitals have an episiotomy rate no higher than 12%.

I listed the number of births and NICU level because I imagine the hospitals with more births are larger hospitals with higher level NICUs, and are therefore more likely to see high-risk births. When a hospital was reported as being a level III center, I attempted to call them and ascertain whether or not they were also a IIIC, sometimes known as a level IV.

	Hospital	# Births	Cesarean Rate	Episiotomy Rate	NICU Level
1	Adventist GlenOaks Hospital	380	34.2%	8.2%	II
2	Advocate Condell Medical Center	2540	34.6%	NR	II+
3	Advocate Lutheran General Hospital	4122	35.8%	NR	IIIC
4	Advocate Sherman Hospital	2823	26.9%	NR	II+
5	Alexian Brothers Medical Center	2301	35.6%	26.2%	II+
6	Centegra Hospital – McHenry	842	22.1%	6.8%	II
7	Elmhurst Memorial Hospital	1395	28.2%	5.1%	II
8	Evanston Hospital	3357	26%	6.1%	IIIC
9	Gottlieb Memorial Hospital	732	39.2%	15.1%	II
10	Highland Park Hospital	1183	31.4%	15.5%	II
11	Northwest Community Hospital	2997	35.2%	22.8%	III
12	Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital	1590	32.6%	14.0%	II+
13	Presence Resurrection Medical Center	945	34.3%	26.2%	II+
14	Presence Saint Francis Hospital	761	28.9%	7.6%	II+
15	St. Alexius Medical Center	2984	35.9%	34.6%	III
16	Swedish Covenant Hospital	2079	27.1%	14.6%	II
17	VHS Westlake Hospital	1012	26.9%	12.0%	II
18	Vista Medical Center East	1045	29.3%	4.1%	II

Observations: