Acting Secretary of Health Michael Wolf presented HealthSouth Nittany Valley Rehabilitation Hospital in Pleasant Gap with the state’s first award for Excellence in Health Care Compliance on Thursday.

This hospital was one of seven of the state’s 244 health care facilities, and the only one in the region, to receive this award during National Healthcare Quality Week.

“As the industry regulators, we understand the importance of identifying best practices and recognizing the strengths that we have here in Pennsylvania,” said Wolf. “This new award was developed to identify facilities demonstrating excellence in meeting state regulations and positively reinforce those actions.”

The Department of Health licenses and oversees hospitals statewide including acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, critical access hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, children’s hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. In addition, the department conducts approximately 2,000 inspections annually, including licensure and certification surveys, follow-up surveys and complaint