Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System: Press Room: Awards

About the eHealthcare Leadership Awards— This leading awards program exclusively recognizes the very best Web sites of healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare associations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers, other healthcare organizations, and business improvement initiatives. These awards highlight the Internet's role in achieving an organization's business objectives and recognize the hard work that has gone into creating outstanding health Web sites.

Best Overall Internet Site— Factors considered include delivery of strong health content, interactivity, medical care support, integration with the organization's operations, as well as strength of Web design and ease of navigation.

Judging— An independent panel of individuals familiar with healthcare and the Internet evaluated each entry. Web sites were rated based on a standard of Internet excellence and how they compared with others in their group classification.

Salinas Valley Memorial Receives Gold Award for www.svmh.com from the American Association of Webmasters

Congratulations! Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System has been selected to receive The American Association Of Webmasters, "Gold" Award. We see all the hard work and dedication that you have put into constructing your web site and your efforts are well deserved. Your site displays: A nice clean Design and Layout of Website, with quality content and informative information for your visitors.

About the American Association of Webmasters Awards
The AAWM Association, and more particularly its various Award Programs, were designed to formally recognize and acknowledge the hard work and dedication that each applicant has put into constructing their websites using their own brand of style, creativity and content. The AAWM Awards can be earned at three separate levels - Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Gold Award represents Web Presence at its best. To achieve this award is truly an honor. The winning site has scored between 90 and 100 points, which was not an easy task. A Gold award winning site is error free from broken links and error messages of any kind. This site uses advanced features, scripts and coding. Graphic Design is of the highest quality and original works of art, created by the site designer.

Salinas Valley Memorial Receives Award for Mercury Elimination

Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System (SVMHS) received an award for eliminating the majority of mercury on the hospital campus. Representatives from the California Department of Health Services (DHS) will presented the award to the SVMHS Board of Directors.

Salinas Valley Memorial has replaced 96 percent of all mercury-containing equipment at the hospital. Other measures taken include:

Mercury is a reproductive toxin and a potent neurotoxin. When hospitals throw away mercury-containing devices such as fever thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, and other products, mercury can re-enter the environment through gases released by landfills and through leaching into the groundwater. When mercury-containing waste is incinerated, the mercury is vaporized into the air. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, medical waste incinerators are the fourth largest source of mercury going into the environment. Mercury fever thermometers alone contribute about 17 tons of mercury to solid waste landfills annually.

100 Top Hospitals

For Heart Care SVMHS was named as one of the 100 Top Hospitals for interventional cardiovascular services. The national award recognizes SVMHS for demonstrating excellence in Coronary Angioplasty, or Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA).

It was announced by HCIA, Inc., a Baltimore-based health care information company that produces 100 Top Hospitals: Benchmarks for Success. Working independently, HCIA analyzes hospitals across the nation and ranks the Top 100. Since heart disease is the No. 1 killer in Monterey County as well as the U.S. as a whole, SVMHS is proud to be in the company of this elite group.

Ritz E. Heerman Memorial Award

SVMHS was one of two hospitals in the state to receive the prestigious California Healthcare Association's Ritz E. Heerman Memorial Award. The award recognizes the Hospital -- now joined in an extraordinary and high-profile partnership with NASA -- as a front-runner in ushering in new technology. The award was given for "specific contributions to the improvement of patient care through innovative programs."

Arthur Andersen Awards

We've been honored with two prestigious Arthur Andersen Awards. The first one, a Northern California Award presented to us in San Francisco, was in the category of "Unleashing the Power of Technology." The other, an international award presented to us in Chicago, was in the category of "Global Best Practices."

Best PR Campaign of 1998 Award

We received "Best PR Campaign of 1998 Award" for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations News. This award was for the entire public relations campaign, including our exhibits and educational outreach efforts, carried out in coordination with NASA for our "Partners in Technology" campaign.

Interactive Digital Services

We are also taking the lead in technology for patient education by providing Allen Technologies' interactive digital services to our patients, allowing on-demand education through in-room "Smart Television."

Awards