Roswell Park Attains Nation's Highest Honor for Nursing Care

BUFFALO, NY — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center leadership received official word this morning that America’s first cancer center has earned Magnet^® Recognition for nursing excellence, a top national honor bestowed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Approximately 6% of all hospitals in the United States earn Magnet recognition. Roswell Park is the only hospital in Western New York — and the only freestanding cancer center in New York State — to earn this recognition.

The Magnet distinction recognizes quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice, providing the ultimate benchmark for consumers to measure the quality of care they can expect to receive. In Magnet hospitals, patient outcomes are better, and their length of stay is shorter.

“We’re ecstatic and honored to receive such a distinction,” says Maureen Kelly, RN, MS, Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, noting that the ANCC review panel approved Roswell Park's designation unanimously. “The Magnet label helps patients identify hospitals where they’ll receive the best care and validates the quality of the nursing care that Roswell Park has consistently provided.”

In its most recent patient satisfaction survey, Roswell Park ranked in the 99th percentile nationwide for overall nursing care (click here).

The Magnet Recognition Program^® is based on the assessment of specific characteristics of a hospital’s nursing program, environment and organization — quality indicators referred to as “Forces of Magnetism,” defined in ANA Nursing Administration: Scope & Standards of Practice (2009) and other documents.

To earn Magnet^® recognition, Roswell Park demonstrated and documented excellence in nursing that reflects:

• Leaders who transform their organization’s values, beliefs and behaviors
• An organizational structure that empowers staff to achieve outcome goals and better address their community’s needs
• Exemplary professional practice
• A commitment to discovering new knowledge, innovations and quality improvements; placing a value on continuing education
• Measurable quality results

“We’re proud to be included in such an elite group,” says Donald L. Trump, MD, FACP, President and CEO of Roswell Park. “Our nurses are a driving and innovative force behind the quality of care a person receives at Roswell Park and our shared mission to understand, prevent and cure cancer.”

The rigorous Magnet application process was spearheaded by Mary Ann Long, RN, MS, Roswell Park’s Director of Patient Care Services and Magnet Director, and Lisa Boris, RN, MS, Assistant Director of Patient Care Services, who took charge of preparing the 3,500-page document submitted in February. The ANCC conducted a follow-up, three-day site-visit to Roswell Park in July. Roswell Park has frequently been recognized for excellence, including being named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2010-11 Best Hospitals list for cancer care, named as one of the eight best hospitals in the nation for complex or “extremely difficult” cancer cases by AARP The Magazine; inclusion on The Scientist magazine’s list of Best Places to Work in Academia; and special commendations from BlueCross BlueShield, Optum Health and others.

The mission of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Roswell Park, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit Roswell Park’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email AskRoswell@Roswellpark.org.