Hershey Medical Center Ranked
In Three Areas By U.S. News & World Report

7-30-97
HERSHEY, PA -- The Penn State Geisinger Health System's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was cited by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best hospitals in the nation in three categories, according to its eighth annual rankings, "America's Best Hospitals," in the July 28 issue.

Hershey Medical Center was ranked 31st for its urology service, 37th for gastroenterology, and 38th for cancer treatment.

Additionally, Geisinger Medical Center, Hershey's new partner in the Penn State Geisinger Health System, was ranked 41st for its endocrinology service. Endocrinologists treat the body's hormone-producing endocrine glands that regulate growth, temperature, metabolism and sexual development.

According to a news release by U.S. News & World Report, the listing "assesses care for 17 specialties at 1,800 hospitals nationwide, 135 of which scored high enough to be ranked." Rankings of specialties were based on reputation and various medical data or on reputation alone. "Any institution listed among the top 42 medical centers in any specialty should be considered a leading center," according to U.S. News, "and the rankings do not imply that other hospitals cannot or do not deliver quality care."

To produce the rankings, U.S. News, in conjunction with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), assessed hospital care for 17 specialties. NORC, a noted social science research group at the University of Chicago, mailed confidential questionnaires to a geographic cross section of 150 board-certified physicians in each specialty--a total of 2,550 physicians. NORC asked the physicians to name the five hospitals they consider the best from among 1,800 of the nation's hospitals.

*USN&WR*

Contact:
M. Steven Bortner: (o) 717-531-8607; (h) 717-838-5910; msb3@psu.edu
Robert Bomboy: (o) 717-271-6435; (h) 717-275-7822; rbomboy@geisinger.edu