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The Right Care, at the Right Place, at the Right Time


Providing the right level of care at the right place and at the right time is essential to ensuring the best possible health outcomes for pregnant individuals and newborns. Levels of Care (LoC) helps designate healthcare facilities based on the level and type of services they provide. This ensures that individuals receive risk-appropriate care tailored to their medical needs.

Why Levels of Care Matter

Levels of Care create a consistent, structured approach to health care delivery, ensuring that patients with varying medical complexities receive appropriate support. This system:

  • Improves patient outcomes by matching medical needs with specialized facilities.
  • Enhances coordination between hospitals and providers.
  • Reduces unnecessary transfers while ensuring high-risk patients receive specialized care.

Understanding Levels of Care

Healthcare facilities are classified based on their capacity to care for pregnant individuals and newborns. These designations ensure that patients receive the care they need based on the complexity of their condition.

  • Level I – Basic care for low-risk pregnancies and healthy newborns, with the ability to stabilize and transfer cases when necessary
  • Level II – Specialty care for moderate-risk pregnancies and newborns who need additional support but not intensive care
  • Level III – Intensive care for high-risk pregnancies and newborns requiring advanced medical support, often provided in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
  • Level IV – Comprehensive care for the most complex cases, often including advanced surgeries and specialized NICUs

By structuring care in this way, hospitals can work together to ensure that all patients—whether they have routine needs or need specialized interventions—receive the best possible care in the most efficient and effective way.

Note: Maternal LoC also includes the “accredited birth center” designation, meant for out-of-hospital birthing centers that care for low-risk individuals with uncomplicated pregnancies. At this time, WAPC is not designating this level, but aims to scale up to include it in the future.

Levels of Care Designation Program

The voluntary Levels of Care designations for birthing hospitals allow hospitals to assess their capacity to provide risk-appropriate perinatal care, ensuring every birthing person and infant receives the right level of care at the appropriate facility.

WAPC launched the LOCATe tool in Wisconsin in 2023 and is now relaunching updated Levels of Care designation surveys. The 2025 pilot program includes the same phases as the proposed full designation process that is projected to begin in 2026. The participating hospital teams are supporting WAPC in identifying gaps and challenges to ensure a successful launch in 2026.  

The program has three phases:

Self-assessment

Hospitals will complete a designation survey for maternal and neonatal care, based on guidelines from ACOG and AAP.

Onsite Meeting

WAPC will assemble a Levels of Care Review Team and visit each pilot hospital, collaboratively reviewing the self-assessment and the hospital’s capabilities.

Results & Follow-up

Hospitals will receive their LoC designation results. If there are discrepancies between expected and assessed LoC, hospitals will be given recommendations on how to remediate this.

Program Participants

There are nine participating hospital teams representing seven hospital systems across Wisconsin.