ORANGE -- UC Irvine Medical Center is again among the top California hospitals named in ADVANCE for Nurses newsmagazine's second annual Readers' Choice survey.

The magazine asked readers to rate 465 hospitals for success in empowering, engaging and supporting nurses while continuing to raise the bar on quality patient care delivery.

"Our nurses provide the backbone in the medical center's commitment to the best patient care possible," said chief nursing officer Lisa M. Reiser. "Having them vote UCI a Readers' Choice hospital is a validation of our efforts."

UCI also was selected to the 2007 inaugural Readers' Choice list.

Voting was open to registered nurses who were asked to rank a selected hospital in categories that matter to nurses: quality of care, organizational culture, communication, professional development and retention efforts. ADVANCE readers ranked facilities by responding to 50 statements on a 1-5 scale. The hospitals scoring highest in each category were named the Readers' Choice.

UC Irvine was among the top five California hospitals to earn the Readers' Choice designation from a statewide list.

Hundreds of nurses from across the ADVANCE for Nurses coverage areas voted in the unscientific online poll, which was available on the newsmagazine's Web site earlier this year. The hospitals are featured on the October Southern California issue cover and online at http://nursing.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?prg=22&cc=123300.

ADVANCE for Nurses is among several organizations recently to recognize UC Irvine Healthcare's commitment to excellence. In July, UC Irvine Medical Center was included for the eighth consecutive year among the nation's best in U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals ranking. In August, the medical center's commitment to nursing excellence earned it a second designation as a Magnet Recognition Program by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The medical center was the first hospital in Orange County to receive that designation in 2003. In September, Leapfrog Group selected the medical center for its 2008 Top Hospitals list from among more than 1,200 hospitals surveyed for quality and safety, including performance in high-risk procedures, intensive care unit staffing and automation of medical orders to prevent errors.

About UC Irvine Medical Center: UC Irvine Medical Center is Orange County's only university research hospital, Level I trauma center, American College of Surgeons-verified regional burn center and National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. It offers acute- and general-care service and opens its 482,000-square-foot new University Hospital in early 2009.

About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 2,000 faculty members. The third-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.6 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.

News Radio: UCI maintains on campus an ISDN line for conducting interviews with its faculty and experts. The use of this line is available free-of-charge to radio news programs/stations who wish to interview UCI faculty and experts. Use of the ISDN line is subject to availability and approval by the university.

UCI maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media. To access, visit http://today.uci.edu/news/experts.asp.

For UCI breaking news, visit www.zotwire.uci.edu.