Exciting News!

On Friday, we received word that two of the hospitals in our Southeast Texas region, CHRISTUS Hospital – St. Elizabeth and CHRISTUS Hospital – St. Mary, received Magnet designations. Although this is a goal for all CHRISTUS hospitals, these two are the first in the CHRISTUS system to reach this significant achievement.

This is a victory that deserves recognition, and I was privileged to listen in on their phone call with representatives of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), who awarded the designation. The representatives had many positive comments, and I am confident that our Associates at CHRISTUS Hospital will have many learnings to share with other health systems and other CHRISTUS facilities who are pursuing Magnet status.

I will talk further in a future post about the importance of pursuing the Magnet designation, but for now, I have included more information about the announcement below.

CHRISTUS Hospital – St Elizabeth and CHRISTUS Hospital – St. Mary first in system to achieve Magnet Status

CHRISTUS Hospital – St. Elizabeth and St. Mary were notified this morning that both campuses are one of only three percent of hospitals in the country – and the first in CHRISTUS -- to be a recipient of the Magnet Recognition Program® from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). ANCC established the award program to recognize health care organizations that provide nursing excellence and also provides a forum with which to share best practices in nursing.

“This honor is a true testament to the commitment that we have to our patients and to our community,” said Ellen Jones, president and chief executive officer of CHRISTUS Health Southeast Texas. “We are honored to be bestowed with the most prestigious nursing award in our industry and will continue to embody the excellence in nursing care that this designation carries.”

Recognizing quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice, the Magnet Recognition Program® provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of care that they can expect to receive. Other renowned institutions to receive the Magnet designation include the Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins, as well as M.D. Anderson and Texas Children’s hospitals in Houston.

The Magnet designation process includes the appraisal of qualitative factors in nursing, referred to as “Forces of Magnetism,” as determined by the American Nurses Association's Scope and Standards for Nurse Administrators. These quality indicators ensure that patients receive high quality nursing care, more experienced and certified nursing staff and most importantly improved patient care outcomes.

During the phone call from ANCC this morning, the primary reviewer of the CHRISTUS Hospital application said that “all the appraisers involved in the process were very impressed with the leadership, quality of the staff participation and the enthusiasm of the nurses about quality excellence..” She went on to say that this recognition “validates to the general public and to the profession what a great job CHRISTUS Hospital is doing.”

“We’re proud to receive this mark of distinction by our peers and know that nursing excellence is more than just an award – it is our spirit,” said Mary Eagen, regional chief nurse executive of CHRISTUS Health Southeast Texas. “Magnet designation is not our final destination, but it is a major milestone on our Journey to Excellence.”