Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital CCU/ICU Units Earn Prestigious National Award

May 18, 2007 -- Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s Critical Care Unit (CCU) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) have been recognized among the nation’s top hospital critical units by earning the prestigious Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).  Cottage’s CCU and ICU are among the first 78 critical care units in the country to receive the award and only the fourth in the State of California.

A number of CCU and ICU staff will attend the AACN’s national conference in Atlanta in the latter part of May to accept the award on behalf of Cottage. 

Criteria for the Beacon Award include units that exhibit high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families, and healthy work environments.  Winning units demonstrated: innovation/excellence in recruitment and retention; education, training and mentoring; evidence-based practice and research; patient outcomes; creating and promoting healing environments; and leadership and organization ethics.

CCU and ICU house among the most critically ill patients in a hospital, and they can de demanding and stressful places to work, according to Herb Geary, Cottage Health System vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer.  “Patients in these environments are often unconscious or not able to interact directly with staff regarding their conditions,” he said.  “It takes a nurse with a special blend of assessment and critical thinking skills to evaluate these patients and their medical situations and to know exactly what the next steps for care need to be.”  

He added, “Each day our dedicated teams provide these patients with the best care possible, always being sensitive to the family and their concerns.  Receiving the Beacon Award is validation by their peer group of their exceptional performance, both at the bedside and in the relatively new area of gathering and analyzing data to determine better ways to improve patient outcomes.”

Mary Fran Tracey, ACCN president, said “A beacon is defined in several ways.  It can be a source of light, an inspiration, or a signal of guidance.  Each unit that earns this award will have demonstrated this, or many examples of these traits, to their peers and colleagues.”

The not-for-profit Cottage Health System, the parent organization of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and its associated Cottage Children’s Hospital, Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, is guided by a volunteer board of directors from the greater Santa Barbara community.   Last year, the hospitals provided inpatient care for 21,000 people, treated 62,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,700 newborns.  With a staff of more than 2,500, Cottage is the largest private employer in the County.

- end -