Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Recognizes Penobscot Bay Medical Center in
Second Annual "Honor Roll"

Penobscot Bay Medical Center has been named to the 2008 Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Hospital Honor Roll. The Honor Roll highlights acute care hospitals whose performance was among the top 25 percent of those evaluated nationally according to a set of quality and patient experience measures.

The scores were reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Hospital Compare (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov).

"This one of the many measures that show that Pen Bay Healthcare people work hard every day to bring consistently high quality, safe, patient-centered care to the people of Midcoast Maine," said Roy Hitchings, the organization's chief executive.

The 2008 Hospital Honor Roll is made up of 31 community hospitals and 6 academic medical centers across the region and includes 17 hospitals from Massachusetts, 13 from Maine, 4 from New Hampshire and 3 from Rhode Island.

"The community hospitals and academic medical centers on our Honor Roll set an example for other hospitals to strive for," said Roberta Herman, Harvard Pilgrim's Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer.

Honor Roll hospitals will be noted in Harvard Pilgrim's printed and online provider directories as well as on the organization's website, enabling consumers to evaluate and select hospitals based on quality and safety performance. Hospitals were evaluated on processes for caring for patients with heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and those having surgery. The results of patient surveys measuring patient hospital experiences were included. Patient safety data includes results hospitals achieved in intensive care unit staffing, computerized physician order entry and adherence to safe practices.

Harvard Pilgrim is a not-for-profit health plan with more than 1 million members in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.