Beacon Awards for Critical Care Nursing

The Beacon Award, from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), recognizes hospital critical care units for exhibiting the highest quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families, and healthy work environments.Award winners at Centra include the Intermediate Care Unit at Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital, the first progressive care unit in the nation to win the prestigious award.The cardiovascular recovery unit (CVRU) and medical intensive care unit (MICU) at Centra Lynchburg General Hospital have each won the award twice.

The CVRU was the first unit in state Virginia to earn the honor in 2004-2005. Only 120 of the estimated 6,000 intensive care units in the United States have won the Beacon award, and just 17 have received the award twice. Centra has earned five of the 12 Beacon awards in Virginia.

“This award speaks volumes about our clinical quality across Centra,” said Patti McCue, Sc.D., R.N., Centra senior vice president and chief nursing officer. “We are very excited to receive this national recognition for our quality of nursing care.”

The criteria for becoming a Beacon Award winner include recognized:

Excellence in the intensive care environments in which nurses work and critically ill patients live
Excellence of the highest quality measures, processes, structures and outcomes based upon evidence
Excellence in collaboration, communication and partnerships that support the value of healing and humane environments

The Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence recognizes pediatric, progressive and critical care units that achieve the highest quality outcomes. Since it provides a way to measure their systems, outcomes and environment, this award is increasingly linked to patient safety initiatives.