Salinas, Calif. – September 20, 2016 – Natividad Medical Center (NMC) announced its Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center ranked first out of 107 Kindred Healthcare hospital-based inpatient rehabilitation units for clinical excellence. NMC’s Acute Rehab Center received top scores in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ranging from patient acuity to occupancy rate.

"We are extremely honored to receive the top recognition from Kindred Healthcare, an organization known for its wide breadth of high-performing facilities nationwide," said Michelle Toderick, program director of NMC’s Acute Rehabilitation Center. "This is not only a great testament to the hospital, but a recognition of the excellent patient care provided by our team of skilled doctors, therapists and rehab nurses."

Kindred Healthcare analyzes national data to rank its facilities based on quality of care metrics including Case Mix Index, Functional Independence Measure, Average Daily Census and the Discharge Rate of each site. The Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center at NMC, currently operating at a 95 percent occupancy rate this year, has a discharge to home rate of 83 percent, surpassing the benchmark of 75 percent. In addition, the facility’s patients have seen functional independence scores of over 35, which indicate a high level of independence and probability of successful discharge.

Kindred Healthcare presented NMC’s Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center with a certificate of clinical excellence for outstanding patient care on September 14, 2016.

To learn more about the Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center at Natividad Medical Center, visit: http://nmcacuterehab.com/

About Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center
The Sam Karas Acute Rehabilitation Center is located at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California. It is the best choice for acute rehab in Monterey County, serving areas from South Bay (Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Hollister) to the Central Coast (Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Monterey, Carmel, Salinas, King City).

About Natividad Medical Center (NMC)
Owned and operated by Monterey County, NMC is a 172-bed, acute-care hospital providing health care services to county residents for more than 131 years. Based in Salinas, California, NMC offers inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic and specialty medical care. NMC provides more than 38,000 patient days of care each year and has more than 52,000 emergency department visits per year. NMC is a Level II Trauma Center providing the immediate availability of specialized personnel, equipment and services to treat the most severe and critical injuries. NMC’s Trauma Center is a vital community service locally that saves lives and eliminates the need to fly critically injured patients to a distant trauma center. NMC is ranked No. 1 in newborn deliveries in Monterey County and is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast through its affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). With a medical staff of more than 300 physicians, NMC’s mission is to continually monitor and improve the health of the people, including the vulnerable, in Monterey County through coordinated, affordable high-quality health care. For more information, please call 831-755-4111 or visit www.natividad.com.

About Kindred Healthcare
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. is a healthcare services company that through its subsidiaries operates hospitals, nursing centers, home health, hospice and non-medical home care locations and a contract rehabilitation services business across the United States. At June 30, 2016, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 101,800 employees providing healthcare services in 2,684 locations in 46 states, including 97 transitional care hospitals, 19 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 92 nursing centers, 19 sub-acute units, 617 Kindred at Home health, hospice and non-medical home care sites of service, 105 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based) and contract rehabilitation service businesses which served 1,735 non-affiliated sites of service. Our company stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KND. For more information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com.