Mercy Health – Fairfield Hospital Achieves Magnet® Recognition

Mercy Health – Cincinnati, which provides advanced, compassionate, quality care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that Fairfield Hospital attained Magnet recognition for the second time in testament to its continued dedication to high-quality nursing practice.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® distinguishes health care organizations that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence. This credential is the highest national honor for professional nursing practice.

Receiving Magnet recognition for the second time is a great achievement for Fairfield Hospital, placing it among a select global community of Magnet-recognized organizations. Just 482 U.S. health care organizations out of over 6,300 U.S. hospitals have achieved Magnet recognition.

“Magnet recognition is a tremendous honor and reflects our commitment to delivering the highest quality of care to this community,” said Pat Davis-Hagens, Central Market President and Chief Nursing Officer, Mercy Health - Cincinnati. “To earn Magnet recognition once was a great accomplishment and an incredible source of pride for our nurses. Our repeated achievement of this credential underscores the foundation of excellence and values that drive our entire staff to strive harder each day to meet the health care needs of the people we serve.”

“The accrediting body expects more from a hospital for each successive Magnet Designation and we worked very hard to ensure we had the data and the excellent patient outcomes to support our application. That hard work paid off with the American Nurses Credentialing Center calling out areas where we demonstrated exemplary practice,” said Ramona Cheek, Fairfield Hospital Chief Nursing Officer.

Those areas included:

• The Chief Nursing Officer’s relationship with the nursing staff
• Mercy Health’s commitment to faith-based care and the attention staff pays to the spiritual life of patients
• Mercy Health’s RISEN program – a unique, four-day program available to employees that helps participants raise their awareness of the power of the human spirit for health and healing
• Mercy Health’s commitment to continuing education for its nurses, which includes loan repayment and tuition assistance programs

Research demonstrates that Magnet recognition provides specific benefits to health care organizations and their communities, such as:

• 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 rates
• Higher job satisfaction among nurses
• Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave their positions

Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and is a factor when the public judges health care organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “America’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care.

The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, ANCC evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence.

The foundation of this model comprises various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.

To achieve initial Magnet recognition, organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that demands widespread participation from leadership and staff. This process includes an electronic application, written patient care documentation, an on-site visit, and a review by the Commission on Magnet Recognition.

Health care organizations must reapply for Magnet recognition every four years based on adherence to Magnet concepts and demonstrated improvements in patient care and quality. An organization reapplying for Magnet recognition must provide documented evidence to demonstrate how staff members sustained and improved Magnet concepts, performance and quality over the four-year period since the organization received its initial recognition.