Baystate Medical Center Achieves Fourth Magnet® Recognition

For an unprecedented fourth consecutive time, Baystate Medical Center has achieved Magnet® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a distinction that places the hospital’s nursing staff among the finest in the nation.

What is Magnet Recognition?

As a Magnet-certified hospital, Baystate Medical Center is part of a select group of 530 healthcare organizations out of more than 6,000 in the United States. It is one of only 10 such hospitals in Massachusetts and 26 in New England. Nationally, only about 8.5% of all U.S. hospitals are Magnet-recognized.

The Magnet Recognition Program® was developed by the ANCC, a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association, to recognize health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and uphold the tradition within nursing of professional practice. Magnet® recognition is the highest national credential for nursing excellence, serving as the gold standard for nursing practice. Such an accomplishment is a testament to the unrelenting commitment of Baystate Medical Center nurses to the patients and families they serve.

“Recognizing nursing excellence at Baystate Medical Center for a fourth time over a span of 15 years has placed us among a group of less than 1% of hospitals nationally who have achieved this honor. Only three other hospitals in Massachusetts hold a four-time Magnet Hospital designation,” said Nancy Shendell-Falik, RN, MA, president, Baystate Medical Center, and senior vice president, Hospital Operations, Baystate Health.

Shendell-Falik noted this fourth designation comes at an unprecedented time.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought fast moving changes in the delivery of care and incredible stress on the lives of patients and caregivers. The award recognizes the high level of care our nurses have always delivered, especially the unique challenges they have faced in the past seven months treating complex coronavirus patients,” she said.

Healthcare organizations, such as Baystate Medical Center, are required to reapply for Magnet recognition every four years based on adherence to Magnet concepts and demonstrated improvements in patient care and quality. The re-credentialing initiative involves an extensive application and review process and site visit by representatives of the ANCC during which hospitals 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 most recent recognition.

Surveyors noted the leadership of Christine Klucznik, Baystate Medical Center’s chief nursing officer, as instrumental in the hospital’s COVID-19 pandemic response. Additionally, Baystate Medical Center outperformed the national benchmark for device-related hospital acquired pressure injuries for the majority of two years.

In 1983, the American Academy of Nursing’s task force on nursing practice in hospitals conducted a study of U.S. hospitals. The research identified and described variables that created an environment that attracted and retained well-qualified nurses. These variables were called “forces of magnetism,” and the institutions were called “Magnets” because they attracted and kept good nurses. The study found that quality patient care was provided through sustaining excellence in nursing services. Magnet status recognizes excellence in a variety of areas including nursing management, philosophy and practices; adherence to standards for improving quality of patient care; leadership of the nurse administrator in supporting professional practice and continued competence of nursing personnel; and understanding and respecting the cultural and ethnic diversity of patients, their families and significant others, and the care providers in the system.

Magnet-designated healthcare organizations consistently outperform their peers in recruiting and retaining nurses, resulting in increased stability in patient care systems across the organization. Also, research documents that high quality nurses is one of the most important attributes in attracting high quality physicians.

”Congratulations to our exceptional nurses for this achievement, which is considered the ‘gold standard’ of nursing. Thank you for your expertise, your compassion, your advocacy, and the holistic care you provide to patients and families to advance care and enhance lives,” added Shendell-Falik.