U.S. News Best Hospital for Maternity Care Awarded to Sauk Prairie Healthcare

U.S. News & World Report, the global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, has named Sauk Prairie Hospital as a 2025 High Performing hospital for Maternity Care. This is the highest award a hospital can earn as part of U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care annual study.

Sauk Prairie Healthcare was also named birthing-friendly by U.S. News. This recognition is given to hospitals that are committed to improving maternal outcomes by participating in quality improvement collaboratives and implementing one or more projects related to maternal morbidity to address complications.

U.S. News began evaluating maternity care hospitals in 2021, rating hospitals that provide labor and delivery services and submit detailed data to the publication for analysis. Best Hospitals for Maternity Care assist expectant parents, in consultation with their prenatal care team, in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity services that best meets their family’s needs.

Sauk Prairie Hospital earned a High Performing designation in recognition of maternity care as measured by factors such as severe unexpected newborn complication rates, birthing-friendly practices, and transparency on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures.

“Our Birth Center team provides safe, extraordinary care for growing families, and being named birthing-friendly and a High Performing Hospital for Maternity Care by U.S. News & World Report is such a great showcase of their passion and hard work,” said Shawn Lerch, CEO of Sauk Prairie Healthcare. “This is the third year in a row our team has received this recognition, and I’m exceptionally proud of their continuous commitment to the patients we serve.”

U.S. News evaluated 817 hospitals from across the United States. Only half of all hospitals evaluated for U.S. News’ 2025 ratings edition have been recognized as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.

“The hospitals recognized by U.S. News as Best Hospitals for Maternity Care showcase exceptional care for expectant parents,” said Jennifer Winston, Ph.D., health data scientist at U.S. News. “These hospitals demonstrate significantly lower C-section rates and severe unexpected newborn complications compared to hospitals not recognized by U.S. News.”

The U.S. News Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality, such as C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, severe unexpected newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, birthing-friendly practices and reporting on racial/ethnic disparities, among other measures.

For more information, visit Best Hospitals for Maternity Care and use #BestMaternityHospitals on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

Pictured are many of Sauk Prairie Healthcare’s Birth Center team members at a recent meeting: (front row) Katlin Nachreiner, Evelyn Sebastian, Jackie Johnson-Kruse, Jessie Ryan, Tammrin Radtke, Merissa Clary; (center row) Alissa Grauvogl, Alyssa Ballweg, Brie Manring, Nikki Kaltenberg, Megan Hanold, Alexi Suchla; (back row) Wendy Kinney, Bridget Dollar, Kate Neverman, Sarah Jorgenson, Haley Carner