Houston Northwest Medical Center Receives Prestigious Tenet Circle of Excellence Award

HOUSTON, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Tenet Healthcare Corporation announced today that Houston Northwest Medical Center in Houston has been selected to the company's 2008 Circle of Excellence.

The Circle of Excellence honors those Tenet hospitals that have performed at the highest levels in the past year in the areas of quality, service and operation performance. Key factors involved in the process include patient, physician and employee satisfaction scores, clinical quality scores and financial performance.

"The hard work and dedication of the employees at Houston Northwest Medical Center made 2007 a great year for the hospital," said Stephen Newman, M.D., Tenet's chief operating officer. "I'm proud of all that they accomplished and am thrilled to honor them with Tenet's Circle of Excellence Award."

Dr. Newman also praised the hospital executive team, led by Chief Executive Officer Drew Kahn, for their hard work and leadership in the past year. "Health care is a business that requires dedication, passion and strong leadership skills to achieve positive results. The executive team, employees and vitally important medical staff at Houston Northwest Medical Center performed incredibly well in 2007, and I congratulate them on their successes."

Kahn, Chief Operating Officer Laura Mercier, Chief Financial Officer Sean Gallagher and Chief Nursing Officer Terry Kirk helped lead the hospital during its expansion of facilities and services in 2007.

In addition to the Tenet Circle of Excellence Award, HealthGrades ranked Houston Northwest Medical Center in the top 5 percent in the nation for overall gastrointestinal services and surgery; among the top 10 percent in the nation for treatment of stroke, general surgery and maternity care; and among the top 10 in Texas for overall critical care for three consecutive years.

Houston Northwest Medical Center is located at 710 F.M. 1960 in Houston. Houston Northwest Medical Center has been serving the North Houston community for more than 30 years. The hospital is an Accredited Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Houston Northwest Medical Center ranks among the nation's top hospitals for several service lines from HealthGrades, a leading source for independent health care quality information, including overall gastrointestinal services, gastrointestinal surgery, stroke, general surgery, maternity care, back and neck surgery (spinal fusion), overall critical care services, and overall pulmonary services. Houston Northwest is also a Blue Cross/Blue Shield Center for excellence in weight loss surgery. To learn more about Houston Northwest Medical Center, a facility accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, visit http://www.hnmc.com/.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals and related ancillary health care businesses, which include ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic imaging centers. Tenet is committed to providing high quality care to patients in the communities we serve. Tenet can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.tenethealth.com/.

Some of the statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on our current expectations and could be affected by numerous factors and are subject to various risks and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and periodic reports on Form 8-K. Do not rely on any forward-looking statement, as we cannot predict or control many of the factors that ultimately may affect our ability to achieve the results estimated. We make no promise to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact: Theresa Lewis Houston Northwest Medical Center (281) 440-2444 Theresa.Lewis@tenethealth.com