Senior Magazine

SENIOR Magazine – Memorial’s ICU team received the coveted Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses according to Erin Emery. 

Colorado Springs SENIOR Magazine 

Beacon Award 

Erin Emery – Memorial Health System 

In the Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Health System, a multi-disciplinary team of medical professionals care for Colorado Springs’ sickest of the sick. Every day on the unit, patients fight for their lives, whether they’re suffering from a brain aneurism or pneumonia. What often makes a difference in the outcome is the level of care that they receive. The skill of the care giver—usually a registered nurse—is pivotal. 

Last fall, Memorial’s ICU team received the coveted Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The award is given to the top intensive care units in the country that have met rigorous standards for excellence.

Memorial’s ICU is the only intensive care unit in southern Colorado to win the award. In Colorado, only two other hospitals—Presbyterian St Luke’s Medical Center in Denver and Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins—have received the award. In the United States, only 188 of 6,000 intensive care units have earned the award. 

“I’m very proud of the award because it recognizes our staff for their quality of care,” said Suzanne Golden, clinical manager for Memorial’s intensive care units at Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North. 

ICU units are evaluated on 42 criteria in six categories: patient outcomes; evidence-based practice and research; leadership and organizational ethics; excellence and innovation in recruitment and retention; education, training and mentoring; and promoting healing environments. For instance, one of the criteria measures a patient’s length-of-stay in the intensive care unit. At Memorial, the average length-of-stay for a patient is 3.1 days, compared with a national average of 3.5-to-four days. “The longer a person is in intensive care, the higher the death rate,” Golden said. “The longer a person is in intensive care, the greater the chance complications may develop. Critical care is meant to get you over that acute critical period to save your life.” 

At Memorial, a multi-disciplinary team—nurses, physicians, spiritual care providers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, social workers and critical care pharmacists—work together to provide highest quality care. “Every day, they see patients on their rounds. They talk to families, they review the chart. The multi-disciplinary team provides insight into how we may best care for the patient,” Golden said. “No one can know everything about a patient, it is the team that makes the patient better.” 

At Memorial, 115 professionals are assigned to work with the vulnerable patients in the ICU; 90 of them are registered nurses. Working as an ICU nurse is one of the most challenging and rewarding professions in the health system, the nurses say. “In the unit, you are the person standing between life and death, it’s you,” said Larry Edwards, a critical care registered nurse with 20 years experience. “It’s a tremendous obligation that you have to your patient, the family and your colleagues. It is a comfort knowing that your expertise makes a difference in a patient’s life.”   

ICU nurses also try to comfort frightened family members by helping them understand what is happening to a patient and why certain care is being provided. “We treat the patient and the family,” Edwards said. “We try to calm the family. We know that they are feeling powerless. Their loved one almost looks alien, hooked up to so many wires. But patients can sense when their family is upset, so we try to calm the family and give them comfort.” Edwards said that most patients don’t know anything more about an intensive care unit than what they’ve seen on television shows like ER or Grey’s Anatomy.  “We let them know that what you see on television is not realistic. The patient won’t recover in 60 minutes,” Edwards adds. 

Earning the coveted Beacon Award is a source of pride for Memorial’s ICU team. Nancy Wilcox, a critical care registered nurse, said that most of the nurses on the unit have at least five years experience and many have more than 10. “We have an incredible balance of knowledge and years of service,” Wilcox said. “We love our jobs, we love the stress. Receiving the award has boosted our morale. We’re proud to be a Beacon unit.” 

Author Erin Emery is in the Communications & Marketing department of Memorial Health System