North Valley Hospital recently received Avatar International's 2009 Overall Best Performer award in recognition of the hospital's high standards of patient care across multiple services lines.

This is the second year in a row North Valley Hospital has received the award from Avatar, a national leader in measuring customer expectations in health care. The award is based on the results of the hospital's 2009 patient surveys and represents the top-five percentile in Avatar's National Database.

North Valley Hospital has used the Avatar patient satisfaction system since 2002 and received the Exceeding Patient Expectations Award for each of those years.

North Valley Hospital is a private 501(c)(3), non-profit community Critical Access hospital governed by a volunteer board of directors from the north valley area and is the only hospital in Montana affiliated with Planetree.

For more information, visit online at www.nvhosp.org or call 863-3500.