PVHMC Named to HCAI Maternity Care Honor Roll for 10th Year

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (PVHMC) was recognized for “Superior Performance” and has been named to the California Department of Healthcare Access and Information’s (HCAI) 2025 Maternity Care Honor Roll for 10 consecutive years for providing high quality maternity care and continuous quality improvement.

The data collected is a collaboration with the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), CalHospitalCompare.org (CHC), and HCAI 2025 Maternity Care Honor Roll data visualization, which provides an overview of 82 California hospitals recognized. Of the 82 hospitals recognized in 2025, 46 have made the Honor Roll for the past three years, and 18 have maintained Honor Roll status for 10 consecutive years.

“It’ is an honor to be recognized among the top hospitals in the state for 10 consecutive years for maternal patient safety,” said M. Hellen Rodriguez, M.D., perinatologist and medical director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at PVHMC. “As one of the busiest labor and delivery hospitals in the state, we’re proud of our comprehensive program that is dedicated to helping mothers experience safe and healthy births. From pregnancy, delivery to postpartum, our entire team of maternal fetal experts compassionately guide our patients through complex conditions, reducing the need for cesarean births, which can increase complications.”

Historically, the Maternity Care Honor Roll program had only recognized hospitals that met the statewide NTSV C-section target rate of 23.6%. The new maternity care composite measure, which summarizes data from multiple measures, expands the performance evaluation to hospitals meeting or exceeding standards in five maternal health metrics: nulliparous term singleton vertex (NTSV) C-section, surgical site infection after a C-section, vaginal birth after a C-section (VBAC), episiotomy, and early elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks gestational age.

Evidence suggests that the chance of having a C-section delivery largely depends on aspects such as where delivering occurs and the practice patterns of the obstetric care team. Even for low-risk, first-birth pregnancies, huge variations are noted in rates of C-sections at individual hospitals.

Overuse of C-sections can result in higher rates of complications like hemorrhage, transfusions, infection, and blood clots. The surgery also brings risks for babies, including higher rates of infection, respiratory complications, neonatal intensive care unit stays, and lower breastfeeding rates.

In the hospital and out in the community, PVHMC focuses on health education and has a maternal transport program with neighboring health facilities to reduce disparities and improve access to maternal-fetal services.