ACH receives elite status from American Nurses Credentialing Center

Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock has received the Magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. On Wednesday (March 15), the 359-bed pediatric hospital found out it had earned the recognition that only 6% of hospitals in the world have achieved, according to a news release.

“Magnet recognition is one of the most prestigious international honors a hospital can earn,” said Lee Anne Eddy, chief nursing officer and senior vice president for Arkansas Children’s Hospital. “The American Nurses Association’s seal of approval gave us affirmation of what we — and most importantly, our patients and families — have long known: the children served by Arkansas Children’s receive world-class care every day from a world-class team.”

The Magnet Recognition Program requires organizations to “meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence,” the release shows. The application process for the program took more than two years and included nearly 800 staff interviews. The application itself was 2,100 pages and was bound into six volumes. Only 378 healthcare organizations out of more than 6,000 U.S. hospitals have earned the Magnet status.

Marcy Doderer, president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, said she was proud of the achievement earned “by our entire team” and shows “children we serve are receiving the very best care.”

The hospital “puts children front and center of everything we do, and that is most apparent in our entire organization’s achievement of Magnet recognition,” Doderer said. “Magnet status highlights nursing excellence as core to our mission of championing children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow.”

Research shows the status offers the following benefits to healthcare organizations and communities:

• Higher patient satisfaction
• Lower risk of 30-day mortality
• Higher job satisfaction for nurses
• Reduced reports of nurses looking to leave their positions.

The Magnet model includes a “framework for nursing practice, research and measurement of outcomes.” The ANCC, through this framework, “evaluates applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence.” The model comprises of elements that are essential to providing “superior patient care,” including “the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties” and how the hospital measures and improves the “quality and delivery of care.”