Cleveland, OH, July16, 2009 – St. Vincent Charity Hospital today announced it has been recognized by the Premier healthcare alliance as a winner of the Premier Award for Quality (AFQ). St. Vincent Charity Hospital is one of 23 winners out of more than 3,796 eligible hospitals nationwide.

The AFQ recognizes leading healthcare organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence nationwide. 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.

“This award confirms that our medical staff, nursing staff and other caregivers are working as a team to create quality systems and processes that assure the best outcomes for our patients,” said Jeffrey S. Jeney, president and CEO of St. Vincent Charity Hospital. “It establishes St. Vincent Charity Hospital as a quality provider of health care, not just locally, but nationally. We’re honored to receive this distinction.”

Jeney will accept the award from Premier at a special meeting of the St. Vincent Charity Hospital Performance Improvement Committee at noon on July 28^th in the hospital’s St. Vincent de Paul Room.

“The Award for Quality honors the efforts of our nation’s leading hospitals to provide superior quality and operational efficiency,” said Susan DeVore, Premier incoming president and CEO. “We’re thrilled to celebrate the efforts of these facilities as they improve the health of the communities they serve.”

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 2007 data, Quality and Efficiency Indices were calculated for 60 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 (CHRP). 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 60 disease groups and at the overall hospital level for quality and efficiency. Additionally, hospitals had measures for quality and efficiency that were equal to or exceeded expected outcomes.

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