Objectives: to propose a composite indicator for maternity hospital classification.
Design: descriptive analysis of maternity hospitals through a composite indicator and analysis of its association with infant readmissions within 30 days from the childbirth.
Setting and participants: 56 maternity units in Sicily, accounting for 44.436 newborns in 2014.
Main outcome measures: infant readmission rates within 30 days from the childbirth.
Results: low-level hospitals show higher infant readmission rates (odds ratio: 1.3) which may be seen as a signal of inappropriateness of maternity care.
Conclusions: the proposed indicator allows for a classification of maternity hospitals taking into account for different dimensions of the quality of care; it allows the identification of critical signals related to the considered dimensions.