A health care group that rates nursing departments at hospitals around the world awarded its highest honor Wednesday to Arkansas Children's Hospital.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center, a nonprofit subsidiary of the American Nurses Association, said it had given Magnet status to Arkansas' only pediatric hospital. The group designates hospitals that demonstrate exceptional patient care, professionalism and innovation as Magnet hospitals.
The Nurses Credentialing Center describes Magnet status as "the most prestigious distinction a health care organization can receive for nursing excellence and quality patient care."
Arkansas Children's Hospital joins CHI St. Vincent Medical Center in Little Rock as the state's only Magnet hospitals.
"Today is a long time coming," Children's Hospital President and CEO Marcy Doderer said. "It is a day that we will truly celebrate the magnificence of Arkansas Children's Hospital, the excellence that everyone brings to our work every single day."
The hospital, which had anticipated the designation, gathered hundreds of employees in a balloon-filled auditorium to hear the announcement Wednesday afternoon. Employees waved pompoms, rattled noisemakers and fired confetti cannons upon hearing the news from the Maryland-based Nurses Credentialing Center.
The center lists on its website 448 hospitals from six countries as Magnet hospitals, from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, to the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, to St. Vincent's Private Hospital in Sydney.
Thirty-five of those hospitals are pediatric hospitals.
Arkansas Children's officials said the hospital had been seeking Magnet status for more than two years. They said the Nurses Credentialing Center conducted 796 interviews with hospital staff members during the assessment process, in addition to a rigorous on-site evaluation over three days in January.
The center announced Wednesday that a 12-person commission had voted unanimously to recognize Children's as a Magnet hospital. The hospital also received Exemplar designation, a recognition of high achievement, in two areas: data collection for human papillomavirus vaccination and treatment of children's asthma.
The hospital's chief nursing officer Lee Anne Eddy said much of the asthma care has been focused on prevention.
"We've done a lot of work, in particular, to help follow our children with asthma, to follow protocols and to stay on top of medications and their treatment plan, instead of only waiting to take treatment when there's an exacerbation and it gets worse," she said.
The hospital handles more than 10,000 inpatient admissions per year.
Chief medical officer Jayant Deshpande said the Magnet designation shows how dedicated hospital employees are to helping children.
"I'm just delighted and I think that when Magnet designation comes, it really recognizes our commitment to making children better today and healthier tomorrow," he said.
Metro on 03/16/2017