HAMMOND | St. Margaret Mercy, with campuses in Hammond and Dyer, recently received the 2009-10 Women's Health Excellence Award from HealthGrades, the nation's leading independent health care ratings organization, based on a newly released study of patient outcomes.

Hospitals that receive this award rank among the top 5 percent of all hospitals nationwide in providing care to women in women's medicine, women's cardiovascular procedures and women's bone and joint health.

"We are very pleased to receive this recognition," St. Margaret Mercy President Tom Gryzbek said in a news release. "The Women's Health Excellence Award honors St. Margaret Mercy's efforts to provide superior quality care. Our focus has always been to bring the best healthcare to our community, with the best physicians and professionals in their fields. Providing exceptional healthcare to women is especially important because healthy women cultivate healthy families."

The full HealthGrades study can be found at www.healthgrades.com. For more information, visit www.smmhc.com.