Kaiser Permanente Recognized by Newsweek for Three North Bay Hospitals for Quality Maternity Care
Newsweek has released its sixth-annual America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2025, recognizing 444 medical centers in the country and 66 in California, including three in the North Bay.
The regional hospitals receiving the designation are Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center, according to Newsweek’s April 16 announcement.
“We know the importance of giving babies a healthy start in life, and our labor and delivery teams are providing these new families with quality care as they embark on this exciting chapter in their lives,” Mike Bowers, interim president of Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California region, said in a statement.
Dr. Maria Ansari, CEO and executive director of The Permanente Medical Group, said, “We take great pride in the clinical excellence achieved by our physicians, midwives, nurses and entire teams and for the personalized care and support given to all our patients.”
Newsweek said , its list was based on three pillars: hospital quality metrics, results from patient surveys and a nationwide survey, according to the New York-based weekly magazine. It also produced a 16-page report explaining its methodology.
Hospital quality metrics were analyzed from maternal care data from sources that include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, information from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals Database, and advanced certification in perinatal and maternal levels of care from the Joint Commission and the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program, according to Newsweek.
Patient survey results were collected from publicly available data, with topics that included cleanliness of the hospital, communication of the nurses and doctors, communication about medicines, staff responsiveness and discharge information, according to Newsweek.
For the nationwide survey, participants recommended hospitals on a scale of 1-to-10 for perinatal care, operative obstetrics, patient education and counseling, accommodation and service, and nurse and midwife staffing.
Newsweek conducted the nationwide survey in January and February in collaboration with Statista, a German online platform that specializes in data gathering. The firm has U.S. offices in New York.
“ (Convenient) access to high-quality maternity care remains a growing challenge in many parts of the U.S.,” Alexis Kayser, health care editor at Newsweek, stated in the report. “Excellent care at all stages of pregnancy and birth can help prevent lifelong complications and can set babies and their mothers on the path for a lifetime of health.”