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Alven Weil
Premier Inc.
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Premier healthcare alliance to recognize nation's top hospitals for commitment to high-quality patient care, operational efficiency

CHARLOTTE, N.C. and WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 9, 2010) – The Premier healthcare alliance will recognize the nation's top hospitals and health systems for their commitment to outstanding patient care and operational efficiency with the 2010 Premier Award for Quality (AFQ). Premier will announce the 21 hospital and three healthcare system winners tonight at its annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in Washington.

There were 3,788 hospitals and 346 healthcare systems nationwide that were eligible to receive the AFQ. The award recognizes leading healthcare organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence. Distinguished by its consideration of performance-based criteria, including clinical quality outcomes, resource utilization, and clinical process indicators, the AFQ measures top performers at the overall hospital level.

"The AFQ honors the efforts of industry leaders to provide high-quality care," said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. "As we celebrate the achievements of these facilities, the alliance is helping to further improve the health of communities across the nation."

All acute care inpatient facilities in the United States that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the AFQ. Using MedPar 2008 data, Quality and Efficiency Indexes were calculated for 62 disease groups and at the overall hospital level. Quality was measured by the incidence of three adverse outcomes: mortality, morbidity and complications, which are combined into a single Quality Index using the preference weightings from the Corporate Hospital Rating Project. The efficiency index was generated using length of stay to proxy for resource utilization.

Acute care facilities attaining the top 1 percent designation are identified as having scores in the top two quintiles for process of care and in 10 out of the 62 disease groups at the overall hospital level for quality and efficiency. Hospitals had measures for quality and efficiency that were equal to or exceeded expected outcomes. In addition, new for 2010, Premier measured aggregation to the system level, with the same methodology, for healthcare system awards.

2010 Award for Quality winners are:

Albert Einstein Healthcare Network of Philadelphia
Albert Einstein Medical Center of Philadelphia
Beebe Medical Center of Lewes, Del.
Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center of Portsmouth, Va.
Griffin Hospital of Derby, Conn.
Inova Fair Oaks Hospitals of Fairfax, Va.
Legacy Meridian Park Hospital of Tualatin, Ore.
Maury Regional Medical Center of Columbia, Tenn.
Memorial Healthcare System of Hollywood, Fla.
Memorial Hospital Central of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Memorial Hospital Miramar of Miramar, Fla.
Memorial Hospital Pembroke of Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Mercy Catholic Medical Center (Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital of Darby, Pa. and Mercy Philadelphia Hospital of Philadelphia)
Mercy General Hospital of Sacramento, Calif.
MetroHealth Medical Center of Cleveland
Palomar Medical Center of Escondido, Calif.
Palomar Pomerado Health of San Diego
Paoli Hospital, Main Line Health System of Paoli, Pa.
Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center of Torrance, Calif.
Saint Vincent Health Center of Erie, Pa.
Saints Medical Center of Lowell, Mass.
Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital of Brockton, Mass.
SSM St. Mary's Health Center of St. Louis
St. Joseph's Medical Center of Stockton, Calif.

Additional information about the AFQ and related methodology can be found at: https://premierinc.com/about/news/awards/index.jsp.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 80,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.