One more post - ? about finding out hospital c/s rates

[Musette]

So, I sent an e-mail to the patient rep at our hospital inquiring about individual doctor's c/s rates as I'd been having problems getting really good suggestions for a VBAC supportive doctor (I'm the only person I know locally who has tried for a VBAC, and even the local ICAN chapter didn't have strong suggestions). I figured it'd be a good jumping off point, rather than calling up random names in the phone book. So after being very nicely passed along to the right person, the Quality Control person e-mailed me back stating that those statistics weren't publicly reported either through the state nor nationally, and the doctors at their main practice were fabulous, yaddah yaddah, and that all c-sections were reviewed by the hospital for the medical necessity, etc. Pissed me off. I wasn't doing this as a tirade against the hospital in the first place. How the flip are we supposed to find good doctors if we can't get relevant information? (yes, I realize I can call and ask individual doctors, but it just feels like hunting for a needle in a haystack)

Anyhow - I've gotten some better (and hopefully fruitful) recommendations, so this shouldn't be the end of the world, but now I'm just pissed. Does anyone know if hospital c/s rates are reported anywhere? Is there anything that states a patient has any right to such information? I've been checking out our department of health (in MN) and haven't found anything very apparent.

[liberal_chick]

I think the March of Dimes released some statistics recently that included c-sections, VBACs, etc, but it was by county, I think, and didn't specify doctors.

[liberal_chick]

It might be a jumping off point if nothing else: http://www.marchofdimes.com/peristats/

[TabithaB]

The Illinois Department of Public Health releases the statistics yearly for Illinois. Not sure if your state has that information out there. They put it out in the hospital report cards. Illinois even gives information on primary vs. repeat c-sections.

I am not sure what your state does.

[AlexisT]

Many states publish information about a hospital's CS rates. If you post in your tribal area, someone may be able to help you locate them. Because it takes time to gather and compile the statistics, they're usually a little behind--the newest stats I can get for my state are for 2008.

Getting an individual provider's rates is another story altogether. Unless a provider voluntarily collects and provides statistics (and you can trust what they give you), your chances of being able to obtain statistics aren't good. (Keep in mind that if an OB says s/he doesn't know offhand, s/he may well be telling the truth--some docs don't get asked often and don't think to keep track. A midwife often knows because she does fewer births, and they usually get asked, but when you get into OB volume, you can't remember.) I've never even heard of being able to get accurate information on what statistics are compiled by hospitals for individual providers--obviously, each birth is recorded, but that doesn't mean they automatically crunch the numbers to see how many sections or episiotomies each doc is doing.

I don't know of any state that has a law requiring doctors or hospitals to disclose statistics for individuals. Every time I've heard about someone trying to get those figures, the hospital has refused. I don't know what their legal concerns are, but I'm guessing that must be involved.

[AustinMom]

Here is this site, it doesn't have MN on it, but I guess you could maybe look at neighboring states and get a feel for what you can suspect.

http://www.ourbodiesourblog.org/blog...-rates-by-hosp

Have you considered Homebirth? Or a Birthing Center?

I think the most important thing in VBACing is not necessarily your care provider, although it is helpful, but it's your ability to advocate for yourself (with the help of a Doula if needed) and not be swayed by hospital protocols, scare tactics and threats.

I think I would be able to have a VBAC in one of our hospitals (our VBAC rate locally is about 1% and the CS rate around 40% or so), but I'd have to put up a pretty big fight, and deal with crap during my birth, so that's why I'm choosing to HBAC.

If you can't find anyone, let me know what I can do to help with getting around protocols and such.

[Musette]

Coming back to this much later, but while I never got statistics per provider (which I wasn't sure they'd have calculated, to be fair) after some back and forth, and possibly a little ranting at the fact that I wasn't doing it to malign the hospital, and a few other things, I did get the hospital's rate - 31-32% c/s. Not ideal, but sadly pretty close to the last national average I could find.