Loma Linda Earns Major Nursing Recognition

By: Briana Pastorino, Loma Linda University Health News

Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) has earned Magnet Recognition as part of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program. The announcement was made on May 19, 2020.

Helen Staples-Evans, senior vice president of care services and chief nursing officer at LLUMC in Loma Linda, California, United States, thanked the ANCC for their commitment to excellence and the recognition but attributed the honor to the nursing staff.

“Today is a celebration about each one of our nurses. I hope you will pause and reflect on the incredible work that you do each day,” Staples-Evans said. “We have long prided ourselves on the level of care here, but achieving Magnet publicly recognizes the excellent patient care that some of the best nurses in the world deliver.”

The voluntary credentialing program for hospitals recognizes excellence in nursing and is the highest honor a health-care organization can receive for professional nursing practice. This is the first time the 371-bed hospital has received the prestigious distinction, which recognizes organizations where strategic nursing goals are aligned to improve patient outcomes. Only 9 percent of the more than 6,000 health-care organizations in the United States have been evaluated as worthy of this designation.

After surveying LLUMC on April 6-8, 2020, the ANCC Commission on Magnet Recognition voted unanimously on the hospital’s designation.

While most hospitals seeking Magnet status spend five to seven years doing so, LLUMC’s application was completed in less than three years.

“In less than three years, start to finish, we achieved what we set out to do. With each challenge along the way, teamwork and problem solving never wavered; with each milestone achieved, genuine joy and appreciation echoed throughout our hospital walls, and in the face of a pandemic, our nurses bonded through determination, courage, agility, and togetherness to reach the finish line. I could not be prouder of them or this accomplishment,” Staples-Evans said.

LLUMC also earned an exemplar on its appraisal, highlighting how nurses and interdisciplinary colleagues ensure that patients are seen and provided treatment that exceeds the national benchmarks for all eight quarters of data submitted.

Kerry Heinrich, CEO of Loma Linda University Health hospitals, said this designation honors the entire nursing team that comes to work every day to do their very best for each of their patients.

“I have personally seen the efforts our nurses demonstrate every day to meet the health-care needs of the people of this community,” Heinrich said. “Our nurses collaborate and innovate in ways that have resulted in numerous improvements to how we deliver care and to improve patient satisfaction. It’s those efforts and so many more that proved to the Magnet evaluation team that our nurses’ professionalism and superior patient outcomes were deserving of the Magnet designation.”

The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.