Mee Memorial Hospital Wins Statewide Maternity Care Award

King City, CA, Jan. 14, 2020 — King City’s Mee Memorial Hospital has been recognized by the State of California for the quality of its maternity care.

Click here to view Honor Roll Award.

Mee has won a 2019 Honor Roll Award from the California Department of Health and Human Services and Smart Care California, a public-private partnership working to promote safe, affordable health care.

The award is given to hospitals that achieve a Cesarean section rate of 23.9 percent or lower for low-risk, first birth deliveries. In part, the focus on C-sections is a response to a rapid rise in the medically unnecessary use of such procedures across the United States.

According to Smart Care California:

“Efforts to improve maternity care are starting to yield positive results in California as low-risk, first-birth C-section rates have begun to decline, but significant overuse of this surgical procedure and unwarranted variation persists. The range for low-risk, first-birth C-section rates in California hospitals spans from below 15% to over 60%.” ( https://www.iha.org/our-work/insights/maternity)

The risk is significant:

“While life-saving in certain cases, C-sections can pose serious risks to both babies and mothers, and once a woman has a cesarean, about 9 in 10 end up having a C-section for subsequent births, increasing their risk of major complications.”

Mee’s efforts to reduce unneeded C-sections are part of an overall commitment to continuous improvement in health care for South County residents.

“We’re proud to have won this award, along with the recognition we’ve been earning for other aspects of our care,” said Mee’s interim CEO, Rena Salamacha. “It gives us all the more motivation to keep on providing excellent, accessible care for our community, and to keep on making it better.”

About Mee Memorial Hospital

Mee Memorial Hospital is a not-for-profit community hospital and is the primary health care resource for residents of Southern Monterey County.

The 73-bed hospital is the core of the Mee Memorial Healthcare System. Also included are comprehensive medical clinics in King City and in Greenfield.