"Thanks to the hard work of many doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers, we were able to earn blue ribbons in two of the three categories, meeting the criteria to be ranked as a Tier 1 hospital by the Maine State Employee Health Commission," said Dana M. Goldsmith, vice president of medical affairs for PBMC.

The blue ribbons are awarded by the Maine Health Management Coalition's (MHMC) Pathways to Excellence (PTE) Hospital Measurement and Reporting Initiative, which was designed to create a robust dashboard of measures comparing the performance of Maine hospitals with each other, and, where available, with regional and national performance comparisons. The PTE Hospital Measurement and Reporting Initiative is intended to measure and report on the performance in Maine hospitals in the areas of patient satisfaction, patient safety and clinical quality. This information is updated on a monthly basis.

"Achieving Tier 1 status will represent a significant savings to the people who are insured by the Maine State Employee Health Commission, and will allow them to be treated at our facility at a lower cost," said Goldsmith.

The Maine Health Management Coalition is a non-profit organization whose over 50 members include public, private and non-profit employers, hospitals, health plans and doctors working together to measure and report healthcare quality and use this information to drive quality improvement. Currently, more than 200,000 member employees and thousands of others are benefiting from the Maine Health Management Coalition's work. The Coalition's web site is www.mhmc.info.

Penobscot Bay Medical Center is a member of the Pen Bay Healthcare family of services, which includes Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice, Quarry Hill Retirement Community, the Knox Center for Long Term Care and the Mid-Coast Mental Health Center. Through these organizations, and a staff of more than 100 outstanding physicians and more than 1,700 healthcare professionals, we are able to provide members of our community with a continuum of care from birth throughout their lives. For more information, please visit www.penbayhealthcare.org.