Nurse Magnet Recognition Awarded to South Nassau Communities Hospital

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - April 7, 2014 - PRLog -- South Nassau Communities Hospital has been awarded the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet® recognition.  South Nassau is one of just 397 healthcare organizations out of nearly 6,000 U.S. healthcare organizations to earn the prestigious recognition.

“At its core, reaching this level of designation proves that nursing at South Nassau Communities Hospital is about great practice and great care,” said Sue Penque, PhD, RN, CNP, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Patient Care Services at South Nassau. “The Magnet Award means that our nurses are among the best to be found anywhere. We're proud of our nurses, and have always believed that the very best in the business are right here.”

“This honor reaffirms the hard work and dedication of our entire staff and reinforces the core values that underlie how we do our jobs every day,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of South Nassau.  “While many of us have been personally involved in the Magnet application process, all of us are invested in maintaining this credential.”

Magnet recognition joins a multitude of honors for quality and safety earned by South Nassau in the past year including: Joint Commission Top Performer; American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Outstanding Achievement Award; Joint Commission Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers; American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award; HomeCare Elite™ listing South Nassau’s Home Care as one of the top home health care providers in the United States (for the eighth consecutive year); and Becker's Hospital Review list of "100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare" (for the third consecutive year).

Magnet recognition is the highest award a hospital can receive for outstanding nursing services, by creating an environment that attracts and rewards outstanding nurses. It's based on expert patient care, ongoing training and continuing education, teamwork, community involvement and attention to overall patient needs.  The recognition is valid for four years, during which time the ANCC will monitor South Nassau and track its performance against several benchmarks to ensure that the hospital remains in compliance with the standards of the program.

To achieve Magnet recognition, South Nassau completed and passed a rigorous and lengthy process that demanded widespread participation from leadership and staff.  The process began with the submission of an electronic application, followed by written documentation demonstrating qualitative and quantitative evidence that South Nassau patient and nursing outcomes in several quality and patient safety areas (including patient falls, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, healthcare-acquired infections, pediatric pain management, and peripheral IV complications) exceed comparison national benchmarks. Additionally, South Nassau had to show proof that it exceeds national benchmarks for patient and family satisfaction, as well as nurse satisfaction.

The application and documentation submitted by South Nassau was scored by the ANCC to determine whether or not South Nassau was deserving of an on-site evaluation to thoroughly assess its worthiness of Magnet recognition.  After the multi-day, comprehensive on-site review process, a detailed appraisal report was completed and a vote was held by the ANCC to determine whether Magnet recognition would be granted.

During the appraisal, the ANCC had to certify that South Nassau is pro-actively answering to the following five components deemed as global issues in nursing and healthcare:

Visionary leadership transforming the organization to meet changing needs;
Empowered staff properly prepared to face all challenges;
Competent, dedicated, and empowered nurses;
Continued innovation within staff knowledge, clinical practice, and systemic improvements;
Outcomes measurement systems in place throughout the entire organization

Magnet recognition has been shown to provide specific benefits to hospitals and their communities, including:

Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help, and receipt of discharge information;
Lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue;
Higher job satisfaction among nurses; and
Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave position.

Research comparing Magnet organizations with non-Magnet organizations has found Magnet recognition to be associated with higher job satisfaction among nurses; higher nurse-perceived quality of care; lower rates of nurse occupational safety incidents; lower rates of patient falls, and improved skin integrity.  Data also show that Magnet hospitals are better able to attract and retain high-quality, professional nurses. This helps ensure a positive work environment as well as makes certain that the continuum of care remains coordinated, eliminating unnecessary and duplicative care, reducing costs and improving patients’ performance and outcomes.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.  In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.  In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease.