Johns Hopkins Hospital receives NRC's Consumer Choice Award

For the 16th straight year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has received the Consumer Choice Award from the National Research Corporation (NRC), a firm that specializes in health care performance measurement and improvement.

The award recognizes hospitals that health care consumers have chosen as having the highest quality and image in over 300 markets throughout the United States. This is the sixteenth year that the NRC has awarded hospitals across the nation. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was the top-ranked hospital in the Baltimore-Towson, MD Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), a market that comprises seven counties: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, Howard County, Queen Anne's County and Baltimore City.

Winners are determined by consumer perceptions about multiple quality and image issues, and the ratings are collected in the company's Ticker survey. This study surveys over 250,000 households representing over 450,000 consumers in the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia. From the households surveyed, 3200 hospitals named by consumers are analyzed and ranked based on their CBSAs as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, with the winning facilities being ranked the highest. According to NRC, its Ticker survey is the nation's largest and most comprehensive study that measures hospital performance and consumer preferences.

Winning hospitals in each market area are those with the highest consumer scores in four categories: best overall quality, best doctors, best nurses, and best image and reputation.

"We are delighted that so many people in the region associate Johns Hopkins with the best in health care, and we sincerely value and appreciate this vote of confidence by our patients, visitors and those who know of us," says Ronald R. Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, and Executive Vice President of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "With this award comes the responsibility to not only maintain the high level of quality that the citizens of Maryland expect from us, but also to improve on that quality every day."