Newswise — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has received its third consecutive Magnet designation for nursing excellence, marking it as the hospital with the longest-running Magnet designation in California.
Nationwide, only about 5 percent of hospitals have earned the four-year Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the credentialing arm of the American Nurses Association. Cedars-Sinai was the first Southern California hospital to earn the Magnet honor in 2000, and one of only six hospitals to receive this designation three times. Studies show that Magnet hospitals tend to have lower mortality and infection rates, as well as higher patient satisfaction and nurse staffing levels.
"The Magnet designation recognizes not only our excellence in nursing, but our entire staff's commitment to providing the highest quality patient care," said Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH., R.N., F.A.A.N., vice president and chief nursing officer of Cedars-Sinai. "Eight years after first achieving magnet status, we continue to improve, grow and demonstrate daily our commitment to raising the bar for patient care."
Cedars-Sinai earned the designation following a rigorous review of the facility and its various programs. During the past four years, Cedar-Sinai has enabled nurses to participate in the decision-making process regarding safety and patient care in their units. This increased input has lead to a number of nurse-driven improvements and innovations including:
 The "Toes Out-Toes In" project decreased inpatient "bed turnaround" times, which allowed quicker Emergency Department patient admissions. The project reduced former patient discharge and new patient admissions from six hours to 88 minutes. Other time-saving changes ranged from training nurse aides to enter patient data into the computer system to creating a housekeeping team dedicated to cleaning discharged patients' rooms during peak admitting hours. To encourage congestive heart failure patients to weigh themselves regularly to better monitor symptoms of their disease, nurses worked with hospital leadership to purchase weight scales for those patients. Patients were issued their own scales to use while in the hospital, which they were allowed to take with them for home use.
The medical center was also recognized in the Magnet process for its commitment to continued nurse training and education. Cedars-Sinai has been providing nurses with free educational programs and financial assistance through the Geri and Richard Brawerman Nursing Institute since 2002. The medical center also sponsors free baccalaureate and masters' classes for employees through an on-site nursing school affiliated with Cal State Los Angeles and offers specialty certifications review courses and exams. As a result of the institute programs, the number of nurses holding baccalaureate and master's degrees has increased, as well as the number of nurses with specialty certifications.
Magnet designations are based not only on the quality of care provided, but also on a commitment to continuously improving patient care and the health of the community. The award recognizes excellence in nursing and provides consumers with a benchmark to measure the quality of care they can expect to receive. To determine a facility's Magnet designation, the ANCC judges the quality of nursing leadership; consultation and resources; organizational structure; nursing autonomy; management style; participation in and provision of services to improve the community's health; personnel policies and programs; support from executive management; nurses as teachers; professional models of care; image of nursing; quality of care; collegial nurse-physician relationships; quality improvement; and professional development.
RSS