About this Guide

Virginia Health Information (VHI) is a nonprofit health information organization. Since 1993 we have worked with businesses, consumers, doctors, hospitals and others to gather and publish health care information. VHI's reports let you compare health care providers on cost and quality.

VHI worked with an Obstetric Task Force and researchers. We collected and developed this guide for you. The guide and VHI do not say what is best for you. That’s up to you and your health care team. But this guide can help. We do “level the playing field” by taking into account a mother’s illnesses or clinical conditions that affect rates of cesarean delivery, hospital charges and how long mothers stay in the hospital.

Physicians and hospitals were allowed to review data on their 2006 deliveries before and after VHI produced their ratings. They were also allowed to provide comments. This symbol (

) next to a profile means the physicians or hospital added a comment. You can click on the symbol to read it. For more on how where this information came from and was developed, see our Technical Report.

Acknowledgements

Virginia Health Information's "Obstetrical Services: A Consumer's Guide" was funded in part through a Community Health Impact Grant from Kaiser Permanente.

The VHI Board of Directors and Staff greatly appreciate the advice and time efforts of the Obstetrical Task Force in making this report possible.

Comparing hospital and physician rates of cesarean delivery fairly by taking into account the medical conditions a mother had was possible because of the efforts of Jason Lyman, MD, MS, George Stukenborg, PhD and the late Douglas Wagner, PhD of the University of Virginia Department of Health Evaluation Sciences .

Presenting medical information to the general public in a thoughtful and clear manner was accomplished with the help of Marjolijn Bijlefeld, a freelance writer from Fredericksburg, Virginia.

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