ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
note: below
The Roanoke Valley has a healthy dose of health care, concludes Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.
In its September issue, Kiplinger's has ranked the area seventh among the 10 healthiest communities in the country.
Kiplinger's analyzed metro areas with populations of at least 100,000, giving special credit for quality and availability of medical care. The winners were ranked according to per capita number of family doctors, surgeons and other specialists. As expected, cities with major medical centers won highest ranks.
A story on the selections credits Carilion Health System's two teaching hospitals - Carilion Roanoke Community and Carilion Roanoke Memorial - and Lewis-Gale Hospital's sports medicine center, staffed by Lewis-Gale Clinic doctors, as pluses, along with the area's hiking and biking opportunities and nearby Smith Mountain Lake.
The top 10, beginning with No.1:
Rochester, Minn.; Iowa City, Iowa; Charlottesville; Columbia, Mo.; La Crosse, Wis.; San Francisco; Roanoke; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Asheville, N.C.; and Greenville, N.C.
In comments about Charlottesville, the magazine noted its University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, of course. But it also mentioned the city's new cutting-edge ice rink.
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