CONNECTICUT HOSPITAL STATISTICS ON CESAREAN SECTIONS

Topic:
HOSPITALS; MATERNAL HEALTH CARE; MEDICAL CARE; PREGNANCY; STATISTICAL INFORMATION;
Location:
HOSPITALS; MEDICAL CARE;


September 24, 2008		2008-R-0509
CONNECTICUT HOSPITAL STATISTICS ON CESAREAN SECTIONS

By: John Kasprak, Senior Attorney

You asked for Connecticut hospital data addressing cesarean section births, particularly the percentage of cesarean sections done for nulliparous vertex births (i.e., first-time mothers, whose baby is in the correct, head first position).

BACKGROUND AND EXPLANATORY INFORMATION

We contacted both the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Office of Health Care Access (OHCA) for this information. DPH did not have it; OHCA was able to provide acute care hospital data on cesarean sections, but not precisely in the way you requested.

According to OHCA, first time mothers are coded as “V22.0.” However, OHCA explained, most women receive their prenatal care in a doctor's office and the hospital inpatient discharge abstract does not indicate whether the mother has given birth before. Only two births coded as V.22.0 appeared in OHCA's data.

Vertex or cephalic births (the most common and safest birth position where the baby's head is the presenting part) are not coded. But the number of these types of births may be determined, according to OHCA, by excluding births in which the baby is coded as malpositioned or malpresenting during labor (e.g. a breech or shoulder presentation birth).

Table 1 presents Connecticut acute care hospital data on cesarean sections for singleton vertex births in FY 2007. The data indicates that of 14,461 births by cesarean section in FY 2007, 13,431 (or 93%) involved singleton vertex births.


Table 1: Cesarean Sections Done for Singleton Vertex Births Per Acute Care Hospital, FY 2007
*Hospital*	Singleton vertex births by Cesarean section*	*Births by Cesarean section*	%
Bridgeport Hospital	957	1,019	94%
New Milford Hospital	107	108	99%
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital	159	169	94%
John Dempsey Hospital	300	369	81%
Day Kimball Hospital	140	143	98%
Yale-New Haven Hospital	1,419	1,587	89%
Windham Community Memorial Hospital	124	135	92%
Griffin Hospital	210	236	89%
William W. Backus Hospital	284	300	95%
Milford Hospital	190	199	95%
Saint Mary's Hospital	365	386	95%
Saint Francis Hospital	853	918	93%
Lawrence and Memorial Hospital	649	684	95%
Bristol Hospital	181	200	91%
Norwalk Hospital	494	521	95%
Middlesex Memorial Hospital	390	417	94%
Sharon Hospital	78	85	92%
Hospital of Saint Raphael	456	482	95%
Waterbury Hospital	470	484	97%
Greenwich Hospital	768	822	93%
Hospital of Central Connecticut	534	580	92%
Rockville General Hospital	118	119	99%
MidState Medical Center	310	326	95%
Johnson Memorial Hospital	81	83	98%
Stamford Hospital	868	979	89%
Saint Vincent's Medical Center	544	556	98%
Manchester Memorial Hospital	295	304	97%
Hartford Hospital	1,431	1,540	93%
Danbury Hospital	656	710	92%
Total	13,431	14,461	93%
Source: CT Office of Health Care Acute Care Discharge Database
Assumes that if there was no mention of baby misrepresenting or malpositioning (e.g., breeched or presenting shoulder first) then the baby was head-down during labor.
Singleton births - Outcome of delivery was either single liveborn or stillborn coded as V27.0 or V27.1
Vertex or cephalic births - Not coded, however the number of head-down births was determined by excluding births in which babies were coded as malpositioned or malpresenting during labor, e.g. a breech or shoulder presentation birth. This means births coded as 65200 - 65293 were excluded.
Cesarean sections - Births assigned one of the following procedure codes: 74.0, 74.1, 74.2, 74.4 or 74.99.

JK:ts