News Release

MEETING HIGHLIGHTS UPMC NORTHWEST'S ACHIEVEMENTS

Jan. 25, 2006 — Reports on UPMC Northwest’s new cardiac catheterization unit, cancer center, and new surgical techniques highlighted the UPMC Northwest Foundation Corporation’s annual meeting Wednesday at Cranberry High School.

Corporation members also learned about several hospital achievements, physician recruitment activity, and an annual appeal that is generating funds to bring new obstetrics technology to the hospital.

Foundation board chairman Bill Clark said the foundation “is proud to support an organization such as UPMC Northwest that places quality as its top priority” and that has earned multiple acknowledgments of quality, including its recent reaccreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The accreditation followed UPMC Northwest’s best performance ever in an accreditation inspection.

Clark attributed UPMC Northwest’s exceptional performance to “highly-trained, qualified physicians and a dedicated, compassionate hospital staff,” and said the hospital also is an economic leader in the community by virtue of the jobs it provides and the goods and services it buys from area businesses.

President Discusses Mission, Awards

In his report to the foundation’s corporate membership, President Neil Todhunter gave a brief overview of the UPMC Northwest organization including the Visiting Nurses Association of Venango County and the 160-bed Sugar Creek Station skilled nursing and rehab center. VNA made almost 120,000 home health care, hospice and private duty visits in 2005 (up 2,000 from the year before), and Sugar Creek Station is developing one of its former residential units into seven apartments for seniors who can live on their own.

UPMC Northwest’s mission, Todhunter said, is to be a “Top 100” health care organization that provides “regional access to quality, compassionate, and accessible health care.” He commended UPMC Northwest employees, physicians and others for their roles in securing several awards: the hospital’s fourth straight Solucient 100 Top Hospitals award for superior clinical, operational and financial performance; Solucient “Best of the Benchmark Hospitals” recognition (limited exclusively to hospitals that have achieved 100 Top Hospitals awards four or more times); and its second straight Cleverley & Associates Community Value Index (CVI) Top 100 award, which recognizes hospitals’ value to the communities they serve.

Also in 2005, UPMC Northwest earned a Solucient Performance Improvement Leaders award for senior management and board leadership excellence.

Economic Impact, Physician Recruitment

Acknowledging UPMC Northwest’s economic impact in the region, Todhunter said the organization’s hospital, home health care and skilled nursing organizations will spend $94.3 million this year, including more than $51 million in total compensation for 1,230 employees.

The president described UPMC Northwest’s physician recruitment efforts, telling corporation members the hospital is seeking candidates in several specialties including cardiology, family medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, hospital inpatient medicine, internal medicine, medical oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics/gynecology, oral surgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, thoracic surgery, and urology. New doctors will join a medical staff that already has more than 100 physicians who practice over 30 specialties, and more than 90 percent of the doctors are board certified.

Todhunter also discussed new facilities and services including the UPMC Cardiovascular Institute at UPMC Northwest and the UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest. The Cardiovascular Institute includes the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Unit, where more than 40 catheterizations have been performed since the October opening.

UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest is the first facility in the region to offer intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), a powerful new weapon to fight cancer. UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest also is the newest member of the UPMC Cancer Centers network – one of the nation’s top cancer care programs as ranked by U.S. News & World Report – and it recently was reaccreditated by the American College of Radiation Oncology.

Cardiologist, Surgeon Describe Services

The foundation’s corporate membership also heard presentations from two new members of the UPMC Northwest medical staff, interventional cardiologist Nattapong Sricharoen, MD, or Dr. Nat as he is known, and general surgeon Daniel Palermo, MD.

Dr. Nat has performed 46 catheterizations in UPMC Northwest’s Cardiac Catheterization Unit that opened in October, with patients experiencing only a few minor complications and no major complications. Eight patients have been referred for elective interventional treatment including cardiac bypass surgery, balloon angioplasty or the placement of stents to open the cardiac arteries. The goal for the new unit is to perform 300 catheterizations a year, Dr. Nat said.

Dr. Palermo discussed the advantages of minimally-invasive, laparoscopic surgery over a
traditional operation, including less pain, a shorter hospitalization, and a faster return to normal activity. Laparoscopic surgery has multiple potential uses including evaluating and removing abnormal tissue, repairing hernias, removing damaged or diseased organs including the gallbladder and appendix, performing biopsies, and evaluating organs after an injury or accident.

Foundation Activities Benefit Hospital

UPMC Northwest Foundation Executive Director Roger McCauley acknowledged the foundation’s mission: to enhance UPMC Northwest’s ability to provide high quality health care for area residents. Gifts given to the independent, locally-controlled foundation stay in the community and benefit only UPMC Northwest, not the larger UPMC system, McCauley said.

The foundation’s “Branching Out” annual appeal concluded Oct. 31, 2005, and the remaining trees that donors purchased during this campaign to landscape the new hospital site will be planted in the spring. Meanwhile, McCauley said, the foundation’s new appeal is raising funds to benefit the hospital’s Family Birthing Center: gifts will be used to acquire a state-of-the-art General Electric LOGIQ 3 ultrasound system that provides essential information to obstetricians and birthing center staff members when mothers give birth.

Other Business

The foundation corporation also:

• Ratified the reelection of four persons – Stephen Kosak, William Mays, Ralph Montgomery, and Henry Suhr – to the foundation board. Each will serve a three-year term.

• Learned that the foundation board has elected the following persons to serve additional one-year terms as officers: Bill Clark, chairman; Jim Williams, vice chairman; Hank Gent, secretary; William Mays, treasurer.

• Approved the addition of Tyler Best and Harry Liederbach as corporate members.