WINSTON-SALEM, September 26, 2005 - Forsyth Medical Center has been ranked as a co-winner for the most preferred hospital in the Winston-Salem MSA by the just released 2005/06 Consumer Choice Award Survey by the National Research Corporation (NRC). The award recognizes hospitals with the highest quality and image in 180 markets throughout the U.S. FMC is a co-winner in the Winston-Salem MSA with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

This is the tenth year NRC has awarded hospitals whose consumers have recognized them for providing quality healthcare services. Winners are based on consumer perception for hospitals on multiple quality and image ratings, including overall quality of care, access to care and recommendation to family and friends. The consumer ratings are collected by NRC's annual NRC Healthcare Market Guide study, the nation's largest and most comprehensive study of its kind.

The 2005/06 study surveyed more than 200,000 households representing 400,000 consumers. No other study used to measure hospital performance and preferences contain more consumer responses than NRC's study. Of the 3,000 hospitals named by consumers in the study, the winning facilities rank highest in their Metropolitan Statistical Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The study has a margin of error of + or - 0.26 percent at a national level. Co-winners are named when scores fall within the statistical margin of error for a given market.

Novant Health is a not-for-profit healthcare system in western North Carolina, serving people in 32 counties reaching from southern Virginia to northern South Carolina. Novant and the majority of its facilities are 501(C) 3, private, community organizations.

The healthcare system consists of seven hospitals in the Triad and Charlotte markets: Forsyth Medical Center, Medical Park Hospital, and Thomasville Medical Center in the Triad market: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville and Presbyterian Hospital Matthews of the Charlotte market. Other facilities and programs of Novant Health include three philanthropic foundations, two nursing home and senior residential facilities, physician clinics, outpatient surgery and diagnostic centers, rehabilitation programs and community health outreach programs.