For Immediate Release
Contact: Andy Richardson, GR-PR
630-789-8899 or arichardson@gr-pr.com

Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program
accredits five of the best

[CHICAGO, March 29, 2010] Today, the top 100 hospitals in the nation have been announced by Thomson Reuters, and five of these top hospitals are accredited by Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP). They are:

• Doctor’s Hospital - Columbus, OH
• St. Francis Hospital - Indianapolis, IN
• Desert Valley Hospital - Victorville, CA
• Major Hospital - Shelbyville, IN
• Northeast Regional Medical Center - Kirksville, MO

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks study has been conducted annually since 1993. It has been dedicated to raising the bar for the visibility and use of statistically valid, actionable national benchmarks for hospital performance improvement. Those benchmarks are: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, and post- discharge mortality and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia.

Winning a 100 Top Hospitals award indicates highly effective performance across the entire organization, including board members, management, medical staff, and nursing.

"We congratulate all 100 hospitals, but we are particularly proud of the five institutions that we accredit," said Mike Zarski, CEO, JD, of HFAP.

HFAP was founded in 1943. Maintaining its deeming authority continuously since the inception of Medicare, HFAP meets and exceeds the standards required by CMS/Medicare to provide accreditation to acute-care hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinical laboratories, and critical access hospitals. In addition, HFAP accredits mental health and physical rehabilitation facilities, primary stroke centers and office-based surgery.

The mission of HFAP is to advance high-quality patient care and safety through objective application of recognized standards. HFAP provides a user-friendly, cost-effective, and educationally focused accreditation experience. Its surveys were designed to help ASCs identify areas of excellence as well as opportunities for improvement, and the HFAP program manuals include crosswalks to Medicare Conditions as applicable.

More information may be found at http://www.hfap.org.

###