May 8, 2007

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St. Cloud Hospital receives national award for critical care excellence

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is proud to announce that it has earned the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence, an award given by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and specifically designated to recognize the nation’s top hospital critical care units. Critical care units that receive the Beacon Award have exhibited high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families and healthy work environments.

In establishing the award, AACN carefully considered a number of factors. To be recognized as a Beacon Award recipient, the unit must have:

• Demonstrated excellence in the intensive care environments in which nurses work and critically ill patients live;
• Demonstrated excellence of the highest quality measures, processes, structures and outcomes based upon evidence;
• Demonstrated excellence in collaboration, communication, and partnerships that support the value of healing and humane environments;
• Developed a program that contributes to actualization of AACN’s mission, vision and values.

St. Cloud Hospital’s ICU also recently was awarded for providing excellent care to patients in its intensive care units (ICU) by VHA Inc., a national health care alliance. The VHA Transformation of the ICU Award for Clinical Excellence is based on the latest set of measures that have been nationally accepted as indicators of quality. To receive the award in this category, St. Cloud Hospital had to demonstrate application of specific processes to screen, identify, treat and reduce the risk for sepsis in the ICU.

“The multidisciplinary team, which contributed to achieving these awards, includes nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, social workers, dietitians and chaplains,” said Roberta Basol, director of St. Cloud Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. “We are proud to work in the ICU at St. Cloud Hospital where we have such good patient outcomes. Through the use of evidence-based practices we have reduced ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-related blood stream infections and decreased mortality in sepsis patients.”

“A beacon is defined in several ways,” said Mary Fran Tracy, RN, PhD, CCNS, CCRN, FAAN, president, AACN. “A beacon can be a source of light, an inspiration, or a signal of guidance. Each unit that earns this award will have demonstrated this, or many examples of these traits, to their peers and colleagues.”

“AACN believes that every critical care unit can be a Beacon unit,” Tracy added. “Through this award program, every unit will have access to key resources, references and access to those award recipients that exemplify excellence.”

Beacon Award
Beacon Award criteria include innovation/excellence in recruitment and retention, education, training and mentoring, evidence-based practice and research, patient outcomes, creating and promoting healing environments, and leadership and organizational ethics. The Beacon Award is presented twice yearly. For more information on the Beacon Award, please visit www.aacn.org.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, representing the interests of more than 400,000 critical care nurses. Its international headquarters are located in Aliso Viejo, Calif. Founded in 1969, the association has more than 240 chapters worldwide and is working toward a health care system driven by the needs of patients and their families, where critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. Complete information about AACN is available on the Internet at www.aacn.org.

VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national alliance that provides industry-leading supply chain management services and supports the formation of regional and national networks to help members improve their clinical and economic performance. With 17 offices across the United States, VHA has a track record of proven results in serving more than 2,400 health care organizations nationwide.

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