Obstetric outcome measures: the 2024 blackout
For the 2024 reporting period, CMS Care Compare publishes no hospital-level score for Cesarean Birth (PC-02) or for either Severe Obstetric Complications measure (PC-07a, PC-07b). Every value across all 4,426 reporting hospitals carries footnote 4 or footnote 5. Only SM-7, a structural measure, is populated, for 3,687 of 4,658 hospitals.
- PC-02 Cesarean Birth, scores published
- 0 of 4,4262024 reporting period
- PC-07a Severe obstetric complications, published
- 0 of 4,426all cases
- PC-07b Severe obstetric complications, published
- 0 of 4,426excluding transfusion-only
- SM-7 structural measure, published
- 3,687 of 4,658not an outcome measure
The audit, in full
| Measure | Hospitals reporting | Scores published | Publication rate | Withholding reasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PC-02 Cesarean Birth | 4,426 | 0 | 0.0% | 2,814 × code 4 1,612 × code 5 |
PC-07a Risk Adjusted Severe Obstetric Complications (All) | 4,426 | 0 | 0.0% | 2,386 × code 4 2,040 × code 5 |
PC-07b Risk Adjusted Severe Obstetric Complications (excl. transfusion-only) | 4,426 | 0 | 0.0% | 2,386 × code 4 2,040 × code 5 |
SM-7 Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure | 4,658 | 3,687 | 79.2% | 799 × code 5 172 × code 19 |
| Code | CMS definition |
|---|---|
| 4 | Data suppressed by CMS for one or more quarters. |
| 5 | Results are not available for this reporting period. |
| 19 | Data are shown only for hospitals that participate in the Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) and Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) programs. |
| 1 | The number of cases/patients is too few to report. |
Where obstetric outcome data does and does not exist
| Source | Level | Availability | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS Care Compare PC-02, PC-07a, PC-07b | Hospital | Withheld entirely for 2024 | The subject of this page. |
| CMS Care Compare SM-7 | Hospital | Published for 3,687 of 4,658 | A structural attestation, not an outcome. Used on delivery capacity. |
| AHRQ HCUP Patient Safety Indicators (obstetric trauma) | Hospital / state | Licensed, priced per state-year | Not free. Excluded from this data and stated. |
| State health department reporting programmes | Hospital | Varies by state | Definitions, dates and coverage differ; not nationally comparable. |
| CDC WONDER natality | County | Available with restrictions | Delivery characteristics, not adverse outcomes. |
These measures describe medicine. They do not describe litigation and they do not predict claims. A high complication rate does not indicate that a hospital did anything wrong, risk adjustment exists because case mix differs between facilities.
Clinical measures and legal measures are never joined on this site. Adverse-event rates describe medicine; litigation describes a legal process. Where both appear together it is to describe a market, not to suggest that one predicts the other.
Sources
- CMS Care Compare: Maternal Health · Hospital: PC-02, PC-07a, PC-07b, SM-7; 2024 reporting period
- CMS Care Compare: Footnote Crosswalk: definitions for suppression codes
- CMS Care Compare: Hospital General Information: ownership, facility type, Birthing Friendly designation
Cite this analysis
Free to reproduce with attribution, including commercially. Charts may be embedded as published.
Birth Injury Marketing. “Obstetric outcome measures: the 2024 blackout.” 25 August 2026. https://birthinjurymarketing.com/intelligence/outcomes/
Journalists and researchers: the underlying data is already published as CSV at /data/, free and without conditions, no form. Need a different cut, by state, county, hospital or year? Ask, and I will also tell you what the data cannot support.
More market data
Births & delivery volume
Where babies are actually born, county-complete, no suppression.
Obstetric delivery capacity
Which hospitals deliver, which do not, and the 971 CMS does not say.
Legal market capacity
Offices of Lawyers against births, and what that measure cannot tell you.
Malpractice climate
Incomplete, and the page says why rather than filling the gap.
How this was built, and what I could not get → · Model your own market → · All states →
Authorship & review
- Author
- Kevin Schwaner, Founder; Chief Marketing Officer. Credentials.
- Last reviewed
- Corrections
- Found an error? Tell me and it goes in the dated corrections log, whether or not it flatters me.