Measure explainer
Maternal Health
Measures of maternal outcomes and safe delivery practices, including severe complications during childbirth.
How CMS calculates it
Maternal-health measures track outcomes such as severe morbidity in birthing patients and adherence to safe-delivery practices. They are relatively new in CMS reporting; coverage varies.
Why it matters
These measures give patients, clinicians, and hospital boards a standardized way to compare care quality across facilities. For maternal health, the general rule is lower is better. Always weigh a single measure alongside the full picture — case-mix, hospital size, and whether the measure is publicly reported for the hospital in question.
How to read the scores on this site
- Score: the hospital's reported value.
- Compared to national: better than, no different from, or worse than the US average, with a color dot and text label.
- Sample: the denominator or number of cases the score is based on. Larger samples are more statistically reliable.