Monday, October 4, 2004

DUMC Wins Consumer Choice Award
By Pat French

Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) has won a Consumer Choice award for providing quality healthcare.

The award recognizes hospitals that healthcare consumers have chosen as having the highest quality and image in 154 markets across the U.S. This is the ninth year that the National Research Corporation (NRC) has conducted the nationwide consumer survey that identifies these top hospitals.

Consumer perceptions on various quality and image ratings are collected as part of NRC's annual Healthcare Market Guide® study. Of the 3,000 hospitals named by consumers in the study, the winning facilities rank highest in their Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s), as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2004-2005 NRC Healthcare Market Guide study surveyed more than 140,000 households representing 400,000 consumers in the contiguous U.S. and District of Columbia.

The study has a margin of error of +/– 0.26% at the national level. Cowinners are named when scores fall within the statistical margin of error for a given market.

The NRC is a leading provider of survey-based performance measures, analysis, and tracking services to the healthcare industry. The 2004/2005 Healthcare Market Guide is the largest, most thorough study of its kind in the U.S. No other study used to measure hospital performance and preferences contains more consumer responses than the NRC study.

The September 20th issue of Modern Healthcare magazine also contains a list of the winners.