Lakewood Ranch Medical Center Named to U.S. News & World Report 2025 Best Hospitals for Maternity Care
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has been named a 2025 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care by U.S. News & World Report. This is the highest award a hospital can earn as part of U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care annual study.
U.S. News rates hospitals that provide labor and delivery services and submit detailed data to the publication for analysis. Best Hospitals for Maternity Care is designed to assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity services that best meets their family’s needs.
“We are honored to be recognized for providing best-practice, patient-centered maternity care,” says Joel Hallam, DO, FACOOG, Chief of OB/GYN and Pediatrics at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. “This designation recognizes the commitment and dedication of physicians, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals to provide high quality compassionate care.”
Maternity care at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center
Lakewood Ranch Medical Center earned a High Performing designation in recognition of maternity care as measured by factors such as:
- Severe unexpected newborn complication rates
- Birthing-friendly practices
- Transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures
U.S. News evaluated 817 hospitals from across the United States. Only half of all hospitals evaluated for U.S. News’ 2025 ratings edition have been recognized as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.
"The hospitals recognized by U.S. News as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care showcase exceptional care for expectant parents,” said Jennifer Winston, Ph.D., Health Data Scientist at U.S. News. “These hospitals demonstrate significantly lower C-section rates and severe unexpected newborn complications compared to hospitals not recognized by U.S. News.”
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, severe unexpected newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, birthing-friendly practices and reporting on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures.