(Octobor 16, 2006 -- Rockville Centre, NY) - Mercy Medical Center announced today it has received five-star ratings for clinical excellence in Total Knee Replacement, Hip Fracture Repair, and Spine Surgery, according to a comprehensive study released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company.

Mercy Medical Center is also ranked in the Top 5% nationally in Overall Orthopedic Services and Top 10% nationally in Spine Surgery. As a result, Mercy Medical Center is the recipient of the 2007 HealthGrades Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award™. Additionally, Mercy Medical Center is ranked among the best (#2) in New York and best (#1) in the Western Long Island Area in Orthopedic Surgery. Finally, Mercy Medical Center is ranked best (#1) in Western Long Island in Joint Replacement Surgery.

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 Rockville Centre, Mercy Medical Center stands out notably in terms of delivering quality care for its orthopedic 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 Medical Center
Mercy Medical Center is a 387-bed, not-for-profit medical center and level II trauma center serving the healthcare needs of the residents of Nassau County and the surrounding area. Mercy is best known for the specialties of maternal health, oncology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, orthopedics, and behavioral health services, and is the regional home of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Mercy Medical Center is a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island.
Contact us at (516) 62-MERCY or visit us at http://mercymedicalcenter.chsli.org.

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.

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For immediate release, contact: Mel Granick
Phone: 516-705-2618
E-Mail: mel.granick@chsli.org