St. Mark’s Hospital Named One of the Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals^Ò by Solucient

Salt Lake City, UT, – March 8, 2006 –St. Mark’s Hospital was recently named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by Solucient, the leading source of healthcare business intelligence. St. Mark’s is the only hospital in Utah to be named to this year’s list.

The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance, and adaptation to the environment. This is the fifth time St. Mark’s has been recognized with this honor. The 13th edition of Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study appears in the February 27 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. St. Mark’s Hospital has a positive tradition of providing for the health needs of Salt Lake area residents for over 130 years. A full array of acute care services is offered at the hospital, which includes women’s services, orthopedics, and a cardiovascular program that has been nationally recognized as a 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospital by Solucient for five consecutive years.

“This is a great accomplishment for the entire team at St. Mark’s,” says Steven Bateman, CEO of St. Mark’s Hospital. “It is a result of a patient-first mission, which is carried out by well-qualified, compassionate and committed staff working as a team. We also thank our well- respected physicians who continue to support St. Mark’s and contribute greatly to our exceptional clinical outcomes.”

Solucient reports that if all acute care hospitals performed at the same level as the nation’s top hospitals then an additional 106,000 patients would survive and an additional 117,000 patient stays could be complication-free each year resulting in a savings of $7.6 billion.

“The management teams at the 100 Top Hospitals have led their facilities to the highest performance levels in the nation by adopting new approaches that facilitate optimum care for patients, based on their real needs,” said Jean Chenoweth, Senior Vice President of Solucient’s Center for Healthcare Improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals program. She adds, “I want to personally congratulate St. Mark’s for achieving 100 Top Hospital status for five consecutive years. Such performance shows a true commitment to the patient.”