Nurses at West Penn Hospital have achieved a hard-to-get recognition long desired by rival University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
The Bloomfield hospital is the first in Western Pennsylvania to win the Magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the largest nursing watchdog in the country.
The designation, achieved by only 225 of 5,700 hospitals in the U.S., recognizes a hospital's nursing program and its ability to provide top quality care.
"It's an evaluation of the nursing environment in that hospital," said Janice Moran, assistant director for Magnet operations for the credentialing center, based in Silver Spring, Md.
Administrators at UPMC, the region's largest hospital network, have sought the designation for years.
Pamela Triolo, who took over as UPMC's chief nursing officer in September, said she doesn't know why the designation was not attained during her predecessor's watch. She said she is committed to making it happen as early as next year for at least one of UPMC's 19 hospitals -- UPMC St. Margaret, near Aspinwall, which is expected to submit its application in early 2007.
"I'm very confident that we will get it," said Triolo, who came to UPMC from the School of Nursing of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and is trained as a Magnet appraiser, the nursing professionals who evaluate hospitals for the recognition. "Just because we don't have (the Magnet designation) right now doesn't mean we don't have the best nurses."
Triolo said UPMC is working to submit applications for UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Shadyside.
Moran would not comment about UPMC's application but said it is common for the process to be delayed by a change in leadership.
The four-year designation is voluntary and is given only after a thorough review of the hospital's nursing environment, including the nurses' satisfaction and the hospital's ability to attract and retain nurses.
West Penn officials said it took them almost three years to achieve the Magnet distinction.
"It's really about the hospital's culture and having a culture of excellence," said Sherry Zisk, West Penn's vice president and chief nursing officer. "We are very proud of our nurses."
