The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) announced Children’s Mercy Kansas City, in Kansas City, Missouri, as the winner of the ANCC 2016 Magnet Prize® sponsored by Cerner, a global leader in health care technology.
The prize recognizes innovative nursing programs and practices in ANCC Magnet®-recognized organizations. Cerner encourages cutting-edge nursing programs and practices by sponsoring the $50,000 purse attached to The Magnet Prize®. The prize money will help Children’s Mercy further develop the innovative program selected for the Magnet Prize. This year’s award was presented Oct. 5, at the 2016 ANCC National Magnet Conference® in Orlando, Florida.
“We are pleased to honor this remarkable innovation that Children’s Mercy created by its nurse- driven focus, interprofessional collaboration and inventive use of technology to attain remarkable patient outcomes,” said Kathy Chappell, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN, interim chief staff officer, ANCC.
Children’s Mercy received the Magnet Prize for its Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program (CHAMP). Nearly 2,000 babies are born each year with congenital heart disease consisting of a single ventricle (SV). CHAMP combines traditional SV home monitoring, a service where nurse coordinators provide triage at home for highly fragile infants, with an innovative new app developed by the Ward Family Heart Center team at Children’s Mercy. Parents enter patient information into CHAMP, which transfers home-monitoring data and videos in near real-time to the CHAMP home-monitoring care team. Once entered into the CHAMP web portal, the data is evaluated through algorithms and can trigger instant alerts to the team for further evaluation of each SV child.
Nationally, 2 to 20 percent of babies with SV heart disease, such as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, will not survive the time period between the first and second surgeries, known as the interstage. However, since Children’s Mercy started using the CHAMP app in March 2014, none of its 62 SV patients have died during interstage. Today, 55 U.S. sites, representing nearly 80 percent of all centers that perform SV heart surgery on infants, and eight international sites have expressed interest in using CHAMP.
“We are honored to receive the prestigious Magnet Prize and are very excited that the CHAMP program is being recognized for its innovative use of technology to achieve excellent patient care outcomes,” said Cheri Hunt, MHA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer, Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
The Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and uphold the tradition of professional nursing practice. Winning organizations must meet specific criteria, such as extraordinary nursing activities that have been sustained over an extended period of time, innovations that are beyond the characteristics of Magnet organizations, or positive outcomes that have been demonstrated and empirically linked to the innovation.
“This award is a testament to Children’s Mercy’s contribution to nursing innovation in the pediatric industry, as well as in Kansas City.” said Eva Karp, RN-BC, MBA, FACHE, senior vice president and chief clinical officer, Cerner. “We are proud of their many accomplishments using the Cerner electronic health record. Congratulations to the nursing team at Children’s Mercy!”
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is a 354-bed comprehensive pediatric medical center that integrates clinical care, research, and medical education to provide care for patients from birth to age 21. In 2003, it became the first hospital in Missouri or Kansas to earn the prestigious Magnet designation for excellence in patient care.