Courtesy: The Daily Item of Lynn

SALEM - For the second year in a row, North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) has received three major awards for its high standard of care.

HealthGrades Inc. awarded North Shore the 2007 Distinguished Hospital of Clinical Excellence, the 2007 Pulmonary Care Excellence and the 2007 Stroke Care Excellence awards.

HealthGrades Inc. is an independent health care information company that assesses health care nationwide and provides objective report card ratings to consumers.

"We are very proud of our quality and patient satisfaction ratings," said Robert Norton, President and CEO of NSMC. "We work hard to provide exceptional care to our patients, and this recognition is a wonderful validation that we are hitting the mark."

North Shore includes Union Hospital in Lynn and Salem Hospital. The awards reflect scores the hospitals received as full service medical facilities.

Scoring is based on more than 70 independent public and private sources, giving consumers the tools to evaluate and select providers based on quality.

A total of 226 of the nation's 4,971 non-federal hospitals received this distinction. North Shore, Newton-Wellesley Hospital and South Shore Hospital are the only three in Massachusetts to earn honors.

North Shore was recognized for providing top quality pulmonary care in treating respiratory diseases sleep apnea, sleep disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, asthma, cystic fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension.

HealthGrades also applauded care North Shore provides as a primary stroke service hospital. That designation is assigned by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It means that Salem and Union hospitals follow national standards to ensure that diagnostic and therapeutic services are provided by a team available 24 hours a day for patients with symptoms of acute stroke.

Health Grades praised the work of North Shore doctors, nurses and other workers in specialty areas including community acquired pneumonia, Bariatrics (gastric bypass), heart attack, prostatectomy, stroke and valve replacement surgery.

North Shore Medical Center is a multi-site health system headquartered in Salem, which includes NSMC Salem Hospital, NSMC Union Hospital in Lynn, NSMC North Shore Children's Hospital, NSMC Cancer Center, NSMC Heart Center, NSMC Women's Center and the physician network known as Charter Professional Services Corporation. NSMC is a member of Partners HealthCare, which was founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.