Intermountain Press Release

St. George, Utah—Dixie Regional Medical Center has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Thomson Healthcare. The Thomson Healthcare award is based on hospitals' performance treating congestive heart failure and heart attacks. The 2007 winners were announced in Modern Healthcare magazine.

"We are honored to be included in the top 100 hospitals list for 2007," said Terri Kane, CEO/Administrator for Dixie Regional Medical Center. "This prestigous recognition has been awarded to our hospital because of the unwavering commitment to teamwork and best practice medicine. Congratulations go to our CV care team which crosses more than 30 departments of the hospital and to our top notch physicians including our heart surgeons, cardiologists, emergency physicians, intensivists, internists, family practice doctors, and anesthesiologists. Our goal is to be the best hospital in the country."

Among the key findings from the 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study:

• If all cardiovascular hospitals achieved the same results as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners, more than 7,000 lives would be saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided annually.
• The award winners reported hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter, on average, than peer hospitals (5.14 days compared with 5.85 days).
• The 100 Top Hospitals reported costs that averaged 13 percent - or about $2,000 - less per case than peer hospitals.
• There was a large difference in the volume of heart procedures performed by the winning hospitals and their peers. The 100 Top Hospitals performed nearly two-thirds more coronary artery bypass grafts and percutaneous coronary interventions such as angioplasty.

"These winning hospitals bring great value to their communities," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs in the Center for Healthcare Improvement, Thomson Healthcare. "They have set national benchmarks for clinical process, outcomes, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness."

Thomson Healthcare scored facilities in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.

The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the following number of winners in each:

• Teaching with cardiovascular residency programs, 30 winners
• Teaching without cardiovascular residency programs, 40 winners Community, 30 winners

Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services help clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies manage the cost and improve the quality of healthcare. More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.