HOUSTON (April 26, 2012) -- Six Memorial Hermann hospitals recently earned the distinguished recognition of being named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare.

This is the fourth time Memorial Hermann Northwest, Memorial Hermann Southeast, Memorial Hermann Southwest and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands hospitals have been recognized with this honor. Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital have made the list two times. Additionally, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital have been recognized in the past.

"Protecting the health and safety of all of our patients, visitors, and staff is not a goal - it's our core value and culture," said M. Michael Shabot, M.D., System Chief Medical Officer for Memorial Hermann. "The culture of a high reliability organization is 100% performance on quality measures, zero safety incidents and excellent patient outcomes. These six hospitals, their physicians and staffs earned this award by practicing high reliability, evidence-based care and achieving great measured results. Avoidance of hospital acquired infections and near perfect performance on all state and federal quality measures has yielded tremendous benefits for our patients.

"Unlike some other awards, Thomson Reuters does not provide 'reputational' recognition, but one that is earned based on transparent information available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare and other public data sources, including outcomes," Dr. Shabot continued. "Knowing this should assure families that when their loved ones are admitted to a Memorial Hermann hospital, they will receive high quality care from a nationally recognized hospital."

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals® study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 2,886 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for

Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Hospitals do not apply, and winners do not pay to market this honor.

"This year, the concentration of 100 Top Hospitals award winners has shifted significantly, with Texas, Florida, and California housing the most winners," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Thomson Reuters. "A major change in performance geographically is an encouraging indication that the bar for quality care has been raised once again."

Based on comparisons between the study winners and a peer group of similar high-volume hospitals that were not winners found that if all hospitals performed at the level of this year's winners:

• More than 186,000 additional lives could be saved.

• Approximately 56,000 additional patients could be complication-free.

• More than $4.3 billion could be saved.

• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

Thomson Reuters based the analysis on the Medicare patients included in the study. If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater.

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com. For more information on Memorial Hermann, call 713.222.CARE (2273) or visit www.memorialhermann.org.

About Memorial Hermann

An integrated health system, Memorial Hermann is known for world-class clinical expertise, patient-centered care, leading edge technology, and innovation. The system, with its exceptional medical staff and more than 20,000 employees, serves southeast Texas and the greater Houston community. Memorial Hermann's 12 hospitals include three hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, including a level 1 trauma center, a hospital for children and a rehabilitation hospital, eight suburban hospitals, and a second rehabilitation hospital in Katy. The system also operates three Heart & Vascular Institute locations, the Mischer Neuroscience Institute, the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute, an air ambulance, cancer, imaging and surgery centers, sports medicine and rehabilitation centers, outpatient laboratories, a chemical dependency treatment center, a home health agency, a retirement community and a nursing home. To learn more, visit www.memorialhermann.org.

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