Magnet Designation
Strong Memorial Hospital was redesignated in 2009 and again in 2013, as a Nursing Magnet Hospital, the highest and most prestigious honor an organization can receive for excellence in nursing and quality patient care. The international quality nursing designation is awarded to only about five percent of hospitals in the country.
First designated in August 2004, Strong Memorial Hospital was the first hospital in the Rochester and surrounding region to achieved the prestigious honor.
The term “Magnet Status” originates from a group of 41 hospitals during a national nursing shortage in the 1980s that nonetheless was able to recruit and retain nurses, serving as a “magnet” for the profession. Strong Memorial was one of those original “Reputational Magnet" hospitals.
From this study, the American Nurses Credentialing Center initially identified 14 Standards to recognize excellence in nursing practice and patient care and award the designation of Magnet status.
URMC's 5th Magnet Designation Exemplar 2024
Dr. Karen Keady, CNO, URMC SMH is committed to shared governance across the organization, from ancillary to physicians with nurses role modeling the way. Dr. Keady believed recovery and the way through the pandemic was with inclusive shared governance. In May of 2021, she committed to revitalize, enhance, and empower the Professional Nursing Council (PNC) structure with a professional governance budget. Unit councils had dwindled because they lacked time. All were focused on supporting patient care needs. Dr. Keady refused to allow professional governance to be diminished. She leaned into URMC's Goal 5 of the organization's strategic plan "Generate financial resources to thrive and enable support of URMC and UR strategic plans," and took action to develop a professional governance budget, inclusive of organization wide participation. She justified the value of shared decision-making. Paid and protected time was essential components of promoting shared governance engagement. Dr. Keady successfully advocated for paid and protected time for the PNC President, Vice[1] President, and Shared Governance Leader (newly innovated) to a total of 1.6 FTEs. In addition, other key council positions such as the co-chairs and unit representatives received 4 hours of dedicated time per pay period. The total cost for one year of appropriately resourcing the PNC was $379,331 annually. The resources provided the time and dedicated roles for nurses and interprofessional colleagues to fully participate in the PNC, which was essential to decision-making throughout the organization. Dr. Keady's vision, leadership, and advocacy for the organizational investment in a shared governance infrastructure during one of the most challenging times in healthcare history is exemplary.
Exemplar written and submitted by the ANCC Magnet Appraiser Team from their January 2024 site visit. They were to provide supporting evidence showcasing the CNO’s leadership that led to a strategic organizational change.