Cooley Dickinson Named Among Best Maternity Hospitals by Newsweek

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital has been named a Best Maternity Hospital 2022 by Newsweek magazine. This award is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry-ranking provider.

“Congratulations to all of our Childbirth Center, Ob/Gyn and Midwifery, and pediatric providers,” said hospital President and CEO Dr. Lynnette Watkins. “I applaud the work of these teams to ensure our patients and families receive exceptional, compassionate, and personalized care every day in our Childbirth Center and medical offices. This award validates their utmost commitment to our families.”

The Newsweek/Statista list names the top 350 leading hospitals for maternity care in the U.S., which are divided into two performance categories: five-ribbon hospitals (161 institutions) and four-ribbon hospitals (189 institutions); Cooley Dickinson earned four ribbons.

Newsweek and Statista developed a complex methodology to ensure the quality and validity of the ranking. They invited more than 10,000 medical professionals to participate in the survey. Three data sources were used for the evaluation: a nationwide online survey of hospital and healthcare professionals, medical key performance indicators on hospitals with a focus on indicators relevant to maternity care, and results from patient surveys.

Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s Childbirth Center is being renovated to update the space and add important new services, such as upgrading the newborn nursery to provide newborns with extra care and attention.

Family-focused care requires new equipment and furnishings, including ergonomic labor beds, comfortable partner/family beds, overhead heat lamps to facilitate skin-to-skin contact and foster healthy attachments, wireless fetal monitors for infants, and hemo-dynamic monitors — advanced technology when needed — for the birth parent.

The goals of the renovations are to provide a ‘home birth in a hospital’ experience, with an emphasis on nurture and support, and to allow patients to be surrounded by partners and family. To date, $2.3 million of the $2.8 million project budget has been raised in support of the Childbirth Center. Renovations are expected to be completed in January 2023.