ADVISORY/Hospital Quality in America Study to be Released by HealthGrades Monday; States Ranked Top to Bottom by Quality of Hospital Care; 5,000 Hospitals Individually Rated.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

ADVISORY...for Monday (Sept. 22)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

What:   The sixth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America
        Study will be released on Monday, September 22, 2003.
        (Advanced copies and state-specific data are available on an
        embargoed basis.)

        HealthGrades annually rates virtually all of the nation's
        5,000 hospitals on 26 procedures and diagnoses -- ranging from
        bypass surgery to knee replacement -- and posts the results
        for consumers on its Web site.

        This year the HealthGrades study also ranks the states, top to
        bottom, in terms of the quality of hospital care. The study
        found:

       --  A striking quality chasm in care quality exists from state
            to state. For example, a patient has a 54.9% increased
            chance of dying if he has an angioplasty or other
            percutaneous coronary intervention in Texas rather than
            New York.

       --  States with hospitals that have high-quality outcomes in
            one procedure tend to have high quality outcomes in
            others. States with low-quality outcomes in one
            procedure tend to have them across the board.

       --  Better-performing hospitals were concentrated in northern
            and less populous states, while worse-performing hospitals
            were concentrated in southern states.

       --  States with publicized quality-improvement initiatives in
            bypass surgery tended to have better outcomes in that
            procedure.