07/29/13
Winchester Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit Recognized Among the Best in State
Winchester Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) recently received the prestigious Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence, which recognizes the highest standards of clinical care and an outstanding patient experience. 
Winchester Hospital is one of only six hospitals in the state to achieve this designation.
“The Intensive Care Unit at Winchester Hospital is tremendous,” said Joseph Taylor, MD, medical director of Winchester Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. “It adds so much to what the hospital brings to the community.”
Developed in 2003 by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence recognizes individual critical care units that meet high-quality standards, providing exceptional care of patients and patients’ families while fostering and sustaining healthy work environments.
“Providing the most advanced, state-of-the-art care locally for area residents is a constant focus at Winchester Hospital and the ICU is a perfect example of this commitment,” said Kevin Smith, president and CEO at Winchester Hospital. “Patients are in the best of hands with our ICU team.”
To receive the Beacon Award a unit must meet 42 criteria in six categories. The categories are innovation/excellence in recruitment and retention; education, training, and mentoring; evidence-based practice and research;patients’ outcomes; creating and promoting healing environments; and leadership and organizational ethics.
“This organization is a beacon for the rest of the healthcare world,” said Marlene Williamson, director of inpatient nursing at Winchester Hospital. “It’s an incredible honor to be recognized for the care that we provide to the community.”
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence, three times. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology,pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Boston Children’s Hospital, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.