The National Research Corporation (NRC) has announced Hackensack University Medical Center as a 2011/2012 Consumer Choice Award winner, as chosen by the people it serves in its community, for providing the highest quality service. 

Hackensack University Medical Center has been recognized for 16 straight years (since the award’s inception) in Bergen-Passaic counties, New Jersey.  This year marks the first year the NRC has given the award in Jersey City, NJ, and Hackensack University Medical Center is a co-winner along with Jersey City Medical Center.

“We are thrilled to learn that yet again, the members of our community – the ones for whom we strive to offer the very best in healthcare – continue to bestow this honor upon us,” said Robert C. Garrett, president and chief executive officer at Hackensack University Medical Center. “This Consumer Choice Award indicates our medical center has achieved a level of service valued by consumers in this market, and provides them valuable information and trust when selecting a hospital for healthcare services. “

Each year, the NRC honors those hospitals whose consumers rate as having the best quality and image, based on their nationally syndicated TICKER (formerly Healthcare Market Guide) study of more than 250,000 households. 

The Consumer Choice Award reflects the growing role consumer choice is playing in the healthcare field.  Additionally, recognizing that a host of factors enter into choices made by consumers, the criteria by which winners are named reflects a composite score for multiple consumer image and preference ratings.

About Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack University Medical Center is a 775-bed not-for-profit, tertiary care, teaching and research hospital and provides the largest number of admissions in New Jersey. Founded in 1888 with 12 beds and as Bergen County's first hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center has demonstrated more than a century of growth and progress. Hackensack University Medical Center is a nationally recognized healthcare organization offering patients the most comprehensive services, state-of-the-art technologies, and facilities. Honors include being named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals by HealthGrades® for five years in a row. Hackensack University Medical Center is the only hospital in New Jersey, New York, and New England to receive this honor for five consecutive years. Hackensack University Medical Center was also named one of the 50 Best Hospitals in America by Becker's Hospital Review. U.S. News & World Report ranked Hackensack University Medical Center eighth in the New York Metro Area in its first-ever Best Hospitals metro area rankings, giving it the top ranking out of all the New Jersey hospitals listed. Additionally, Hackensack University Medical Center has been ranked in geriatrics, heart and heart surgery, and cancer in U.S. News & World Report's 2011-12 Best Hospitals.  The U.S. News Media Group also named the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital to its “2011-12 Best Children’s Hospitals” list – ranking as one of the top 50 in the specialty of neurology and neurosurgery – the first hospital in the State of New Jersey ever to be ranked in a Best Children’s Hospitals specialty. Hackensack University Medical Center is a Magnet® recognized hospital for nursing excellence, first in New Jersey, second in the nation, receiving its fourth designation in April 2009. Hackensack University Medical Center is the hometown hospital of the New York Giants and the New Jersey Nets.