October 4, 2004

HUP Earns "Consumer Choice Award"
HUP Continues to Receive National Recognition for Quality Service and Patient Care

(Philadelphia, PA) -- The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has been named a 2004-2005 Consumer Choice Award winner by the National Research Corporation, a leader in health care performance measurement. This award recognizes HUP as one of 187 top hospitals in the nation that have been recognized by consumers for providing quality healthcare services. The announcement appears in Modern Healthcare magazine's September 20th issue. (HUP was one of two Philadelphia-based hospitals to be so recognized.)

The Consumer Choice Award reflects the growing role of consumer choice in the health care field. Winners are determined by consumer perceptions on quality and image ratings collected in National Research Corporation's annual Healthcare Market Guide^® study, the nation’s most comprehensive consumer assessment of the health care industry. Consumers rated 3,000 hospitals in the study; the winning facilities rank highest in their Metropolitan Statistical Areas, as defined by the United States Census Bureau. This year, the study surveyed more than 140,000 households representing over 400,000 consumers in the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia.

"HUP’s recognition -- by the people it serves -- as one of the nation's top hospitals is truly a tribute to the dedication and commitment of its physicians, nurses, and staff in providing quality patient care," noted Garry Scheib, Executive Director of HUP and Chief Operating Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Established in 1874 as the nation's first teaching hospital, HUP is the flagship hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System -- which also owns and operates Pennsylvania Hospital and Presbyterian Medical Center (both located in Philadelphia, PA).

HUP is consistently honored for quality patient care, on both a local and national level. Among its many honors is US News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals in America” ranking, where the institution has placed among the elite ‘Honor Roll’ recipients for eight consecutive years.

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PENN Medicine is a $2.7 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in 1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic health system).

Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #3 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

Penn Health System is comprised of: its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; Presbyterian Medical Center; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home health care and hospice.

This release is available online at http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/oct04/consumerchoice.htm