Hospital report goes for the jugular.

• Position: Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina compares itself to its competitors in terms of dollars and cents

When Charlotte's Presbyterian Hospital issued its annual report, it aimed for a direct marketing hit against its huge, publicly run rival, Carolinas Medical Center.

"The ammunition we put in our gun is more explosive," says Henry Bostic, marketing director for Presbyterian Health Services Corp., the 642-bed hospital's parent.

The 32-page report compared Charlotte hospital prices, naming names and quoting dollars and cents from a state report.

The report points out that the cost of being treated at Presbyterian for a heart attack averages $7,104 -- compared with $9,253 at CMC and $8,329 at Mercy Hospital.

"We had never seen an annual report that looked like that one," says Alan Taylor, CMC's director of marketing.

Then again, Presbyterian officials had never seen a hospital doorman. In 1991, when CMC opened a $40 million, 288-room addition, staff members in gray tails...