This is the third year that MCG Health System has been named the area’s most preferred hospital (past years were 2001 and 2003). Since 1996, NRC has awarded its Consumer Choice Awards to hospitals in the top 100 markets in the country. Winners are selected based on consumer perceptions of quality and image.

"It is an honor to have the citizens of this community view us as the preferred hospital. Their opinion is the one that matters most," said Don Snell, President and CEO of MCG Health System. "This award is affirmation that our faculty and staff are the finest in the region."

National Research Corporation is a recognized industry leader, with more than two decades of experience in health care specific performance measurement. The 2005 Healthcare Market Guide is the nation's largest and most comprehensive study of its kind. No other study used to rate hospitals contains more consumer responses. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.2 percent at a national level.

MCG Health System is composed of three separate organizations -- MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the members of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation. The physicians of MCG Health System are community physicians, faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia, or employees of the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation, not employees of MCG Health, Inc. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, the MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by providing an environment for faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the MCG Physicians Practice Group Foundation and community physicians to deliver the highest level of primary and specialty health care. For more information, please visit www.MCGHealth.org.

MCG Health System has won the Consumer Choice Award given annually by National Research Corporation.