For a second year in a row, the health care team for the 20-bed surgical-neurosurgical intensive care (SINI) unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill. has earned a prestigious national award for excellence in critical care.

The Beacon Award for Critical Care is being presented to the medical center by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACCN). The award is intended to recognize what the association considers the nation’s top hospital adult critical care, pediatric critical care and progressive care units. It is given to intensive care units (ICUs) that demonstrate high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families, successful patient outcomes, evidence-based practices and research, promotion of a safe and healthy work environment, leadership, organizational ethics and strong communication and collaboration.

To be considered for a Beacon Award, intensive care units must undergo a rigorous application process that requires submission and review of patient outcomes data; information on unit staffing and procedures; standards related to processes and resource allocation; financial benchmarks, nurse competency; and nurse recruitment, retention, education and training.

As a multiple Beacon Award winner, the Christ Medical Center SINI joins an elite group. Of the estimated 6,000 intensive care units in the United States, only 158 of them have received this excellence award, and fewer than 30 of them have achieved the recognition more than once.

During the most recent award application process, the SINI provided evidence of high staff satisfaction (95th percentile), driven by such initiatives as leader rounding for outcomes on staff and physicians, extensive information sharing and opportunities for unit staff to provide feedback and make recommendations, career advancement, and a “buddy” program to provide mentoring to assist new nurses.

The unit also demonstrated its patient-focused service, including a “flexible visitation” policy for families and staff’s assistance in creating a family hospitality suite, and excellence in clinical outcomes, such as zero central-line-related bloodstream infections per 1,000 device days and the rollout of care protocols for patient sedation, hyperglycemic control and pre-extubation from ventilators.

With some 65,000 members, the AACCN is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. The organization launched the Beacon Award in 2003.