St.Vincent Top Consumer Choice in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, October 11, 1999 – For the fourth year in a row, a national leader in healthcare performance measurement has recognized St.Vincent Hospitals and Health Services as the consumers’ choice in the Indianapolis healthcare market.

The National Research Corporation (NRC) awarded St.Vincent a 1999 Consumers Choice Award as the top hospital for overall healthcare services in the Indianapolis area. This is the fourth year in a row that St.Vincent has won NRC recognition as the top choice in Central Indiana.

Each year, National Research conducts the most comprehensive nationwide consumer healthcare profile, the NRC Healthcare Market Guide Study. From this study, National Research determines the hospitals that are "most preferred" by consumers in 101 metropolitan markets. Recognition of quality leaders nationwide, including St.Vincent, was announced last week in advertisements in Modern Healthcare magazine.

"This is great news for our health ministry," said Marsha Casey, president of St.Vincent. "We’ re pleased that in the minds of healthcare consumers in Central Indiana, St.Vincent is the hospital where they want to get their care. It’s a nice reflection on the outstanding work that our physicians, associates and volunteers perform every day."

Casey said that even with this wonderful news, St.Vincent is re-dedicating itself to a major initiative to improve patient care and satisfaction. "Extraordinary patient care is the goal and we’re setting high standards for ourselves," she said. "We want to continue to be the consumer’s top choice."

The NRC Healthcare Market Guide compiles consumer assessments of their health plans, personal physicians, local hospitals and health systems as well as their current health status. The study, the largest of its kind, details

performance specifics on 2,500 hospitals, 400 HMOs, 200 preferred provider organizations, and 150 fee-for-service plans. More than 170,000 consumers were interviewed in the study and there are approximately 400,000 covered lives represented in the study.

The Consumer Choice Award is the second major recognition that St.Vincent has received in the last three months. In July, St.Vincent’s cardiovascular program was recognized in a 1999 listing of "America’s Best Hospitals" compiled by U.S. News & World Report, marking the second consecutive year the cardiac program received the recognition. St.Vincent also was the only Indiana hospital recognized as a 100 Top Hospital in 1998. In March, a national health care information company recognized St.Vincent as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the country for interventional cardiology.

St.Vincent Hospitals and Health Services includes five hospitals in Indiana: St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, St.Vincent Carmel Hospital, St.Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood, St.Vincent Williamsport Hospital and St.Vincent Jennings Hospital in North Vernon..

Along with St.Joseph’s Hospital in Kokomo, St.Vincent is a founding member of the Central Indiana Health System, a values-based alliance of local health care providers.