The cardiac intensive care unit at Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland has earned a top critical-care award for the second year in a row.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the nation’s foremost organization for critical-care nursing, has announced that the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) at Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland earned the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. The unit also earned the award last year, the first time a Colorado ICU had received it.

The Beacon Award honors ICUs in the United States that achieve the highest patient care outcomes, and “represents extraordinary commitment to high-quality critical care standards, and dedication to the exceptional care of patients and their families,” according to the AACCN.

The AACCN presents the award twice a year. In this round of presentations, the award went to 31 patient care units from 27 hospitals in 17 states. There are 6,000 ICUs in the U.S., and only 130 units have been recognized since AACCN established the award in 2003.

“The Beacon Award is a tremendous honor and reflects the work our nurses do every day to provide world-class care to our patients and the community,” said Kay Miller, chief nursing officer at MCR.

MCR’s CICU is a 12-bed unit that includes more than 30 nurses.

As a Beacon Award recipient, MCR’s CICU succeeded in the following areas, as measured against evidence-based national criteria:
-Recruitment and retention
-Education, training and mentoring
-Research and evidence-based practice
-Patient outcomes
-Leadership and organization ethics
-Healing environment

For more information, contact Kevin Darst, 970.624.1211.