Arkansas Children's Achieves Magnet® Recognition

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (March 15, 2017) – Arkansas Children’s Hospital learned today it has achieved Magnet® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The accreditation puts Arkansas Children’s among the elite six percent of hospitals worldwide that have earned Magnet status.

The recognition is a reflection of Arkansas Children’s nursing professionalism, teamwork and superiority in patient care.

"Magnet Recognition is one of the most prestigious international honors a hospital can earn," said Arkansas Children's Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President Lee Anne Eddy, MSN, RN, NEA-BC. "Our entire team has earned this designation. 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 American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program^® distinguishes organizations that meet rigorous standards for nursing excellence. With this credential, Arkansas Children’s joins the global community of Magnet-recognized organizations. Just 378 health care organizations out of over 6,000 U.S. hospitals have achieved Magnet recognition.

"Arkansas Children’s Hospital puts children front and center of everything we do, and that is most apparent in our entire organization’s achievement of Magnet Recognition," said Arkansas Children's President & CEO Marcy Doderer, FACHE. "Magnet Status highlights nursing excellence as core to our mission of championing children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. This Magnet designation affirms that the children we serve are receiving the very best care. I am so proud of the excellence achieved by our entire team.”

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 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.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s application process took about 2.5 years, and included nearly 800 staff interviews. The overall application was 2,100 pages, which is now bound in six volumes.

About ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program
The Magnet Recognition Program — administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the largest and most prominent nurses credentialing organization in the world — identifies health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. The Magnet Recognition Program is the highest national honor for nursing excellence and provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark for measuring quality of care. For more information about the Magnet Recognition Program and current statistics, visit https://www.nursingworld.org/organizational-programs/magnet/.