Objective To understand the situation and trends of service provision and utilization in all tertiary maternal and child health care (MCH) hospitals from 2015 to 2022 in China, and to provide a basis for formulating MCH policies and strategies.

Methods Using data from the national monitoring system for maternal and child health care institutions, this study analyzed and described the number of outpatient and emergency visits, hospital discharges, live births, actual beds and bed utilization in all tertiary MCH hospitals from 2015 to 2022 in China. The data was also compared with relevant data from national medical and health institutions and general hospitals derived from the China Health Statistics Yearbook during the same period.

Results Since 2015, the number of outpatient and emergency patients and discharged patients in the national tertiary MCH hospitals shown an upward trend. The average annual growth rate were 8.0% and 7.4%, respectively, which were higher than the average annual growth rate of national medical and health institutions and general hospitals during the same period. The proportion of live births in tertiary MCH hospitals accounted for the total number of live births in China has increased annually. The number of actual beds increased annually, with an average annual growth rate of 8.6%, but the bed utilization rate in the national tertiary MCH hospitals has decreased from 92.4% in 2015 to 71.3% in 2022. The bed utilization rate of tertiary MCH hospitals was higher than the national average level of medical and health institutions and general hospitals during the same period, but lower than that of tertiary hospitals.

Conclusion In recent years, the service provision and utilization of tertiary MCH hospitals in China show a good development trend overall, but it is necessary to further improve service capabilities and continuously increase bed utilization rates.