Independent Quality Study Rates Mercy Health Partners Among Nation’s Best for Clinical Outcomes

Cardiac, Vascular, Orthopedic, Gastrointestinal and Critical Care Services Cited in Ninth Annual HealthGrades Quality Study

Muskegon, Mich. (October 16, 2006) – Mercy Health Partners is pleased to announce that the hospital has been ranked #1 in West Michigan for heart surgery, among the top five percent in the nation for joint replacement surgery and in the top ten percent nationally for overall cardiac services. These ratings were released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company. MHP is the recipient of HealthGrades 2007 Specialty Excellence Awards for cardiac care, heart surgery and joint replacement surgery.

The annual study rates hospitals on a five-star scale. MHP received five-star ratings for:

• Coronary bypass surgery (Open Heart Surgery)
• Valve replacement surgery
• Treatment of heart attack
• Treatment of heart failure
• Abdominal aorta aneurysm repair surgery
• Total knee replacement surgery
• Treatment of sepsis (Overwhelming infection of the body)
• Treatment of respiratory failure
• Treatment of bowel obstruction

“MHP places an extremely high level of importance on the quality of care that we provide this community,” said Roger Spoelman, President and CEO. “To receive these excellent quality rankings from a prestigious agency such as HealthGrades is an honor. It also confirms what we’ve known all along; quality healthcare is available to all West Michigan residents right here at MHP.”

As part of its ninth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed more than 5,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its 2007 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The 40 million hospitalization records utilized in the assessment are publicly available and licensed from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The HealthGrades ratings take into account varying degrees of patient severity from hospital to hospital and measure whether patient outcomes for each of more than two dozen procedures and diagnoses are better than expected (5-Star), as expected (3-Star) or worse than expected (1-Star).

“HealthGrades objectively assesses and rates hospital performance in order to help consumers make better and more informed healthcare choices,” explained Samantha Collier, M.D., HealthGrades vice president of medical affairs. “With consumers having a greater stake in their healthcare purchasing decisions, it’s important for them to know that there is a tremendous difference in clinical quality outcomes between hospitals.”

“In the West Michigan area, Mercy Health Partners stands out notably in terms of delivering quality care for its cardiac, vascular, orthopedic, GI and critical care patients,” Collier added. “Patients, families and employers here truly have access to healthcare that is among the best in the nation.”

The 2007 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on the organization’s award-winning consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of 125 major employers and health plans visit HealthGrades each month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals’ patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

About Mercy Health Partners
MHP is the specialty referral hospital along the lakeshore. MHP’s specialty services include open heart, cardiology, vascular, emergency services, cancer care, orthopedic and spine surgery, urology, bariatric surgery/weight management, nephrology, ENT, palliative care and rehabilitation. MHP promotes excellence in a variety of areas through specialized institutes and centers where specialty and primary care physicians and staff work collaboratively. Some of these centers include the Heart and Vascular Institute, the Centers for Women’s Health, the Center for Weight Management, the Imaging Center of Excellence and the Emergency Center.

About HealthGrades
HealthGrades (Nasdaq:HGRD) is the leading healthcare ratings company, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals. Millions of consumers and hundreds of the nation’s largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on HealthGrades’ independent ratings to make healthcare decisions based on the quality of care. More information on the company can be found at http://www.healthgrades.com.