August 18, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB Hospital was chosen first runner-up in the Hospital of the Year Award, according to the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers.

The alliance ranks accredited hospitals based their consumer friendliness, care-related performance and other professional standards. UAB Hospital was named one of 10 U.S. finalists for the award earlier this year.

Award criteria include such things as scoring patient handouts, hospital Web pages and staff helpfulness, and a review of steps taken to guarantee patients and their families are fully involved in medical decisions.

The award also looks at community involvement, hospital staff development and comparative factors like nursing numbers, licensed beds and surgical procedures performed at each hospital.

Before UAB Hospital became a top 10 finalist for Hospital of the Year it won the Hospital of Choice Award, a prerequisite honor from the alliance.

Recently nine UAB Hospital specialty programs ranked in the top 50 for U.S. News & World Report's annual "America's Best Hospitals" special issue. As a whole UAB Hospital was one of 170 hospitals, and the only one in Alabama or Mississippi, to rank high enough to make the magazine's "Best Hospitals" list from 3 percent of U.S. medical centers studied.