Yale New Haven Hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Units (MICU) at both the Saint Raphael and York Street campuses have received silver-level Beacon Awards for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). The award recognizes units that demonstrate improved patient outcomes and align with AACN’s Healthy Work Environment Standards, which focus on communication, collaboration, decision-making, staffing, recognition, and leadership.
Katherine Heilpern, MD, president of Yale New Haven Hospital, stated, “This recognition reflects the exceptional skill, compassion and dedication our MICU teams demonstrate every day. I am immensely proud of how they continually elevate the standard of critical care for our patients and our community.”
The Beacon Award is given to units that show a disciplined approach to clinical operations with strong staff engagement and data-driven improvement strategies. The recognized MICUs together provide care for critically ill patients across 89 beds.
Courtney Vose, DNP, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Yale New Haven Hospital said, “Achieving this milestone for the third consecutive time is a testament to the dedication, collaboration and excellence of our MICU teams. I am incredibly proud of these teams for their relentless pursuit of exceptional patient-centered care.”
Yale New Haven Hospital is part of Yale New Haven Health and serves as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine. The hospital operates two campuses in New Haven and includes specialized facilities such as Yale New Haven Children's Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. It has Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
The Beacon Award for Excellence was established in 2003 to guide units toward better patient outcomes and satisfaction by meeting criteria in areas such as leadership structures, staffing engagement, communication practices, evidence-based processes, and outcome measurement. More information about the award can be found at www.aacn.org/beacon.
The AACN is a specialty nursing organization with around 130,000 members focused on advancing acute and critical care nursing standards.
