The American Nurses Association (ANA) presented the 2011 NDNQI Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality to six top-performing hospitals 26 January 2012 during the Sixth Annual Nursing Quality Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Winners were selected based on nursing performance measures the hospitals collected and reported for four consecutive quarters to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI). The data were analyzed on measures indicating the structure of nursing care, such as nursing care hours and skill mix; processes of nursing care, such as steps taken to prevent pressure ulcers and falls; and patient outcomes, such as hospital-acquired infections.
Each unit was assessed only in comparison to other units of the same type.
More than 1,800 hospitals report to the NDNQI. ANA made side-by-side comparisons of similar nursing units at different hospitals. The scores were then averaged across units in each hospital to yield a hospital score. The highest-ranking hospital in each category—Academic Medical Center, Teaching Hospital, Community Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Pediatric Hospital and Rehabilitation Hospital—received the award.
Winners were Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, New York—Rehabilitation Hospital; Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey—Academic Medical Center; Parkview Whitley Hospital, Columbia City, Indiana—Community Hospital; Poudre Valley Hospital, Fort Collins, Colorado—Teaching Hospital; Shriners Hospital for Children, Chicago—Pediatric Hospital; and Linden Oaks Hospital, Naperville, Illinois—Psychiatric Hospital.
Established in 1998, the NDNQI provides links between patient outcomes and the quality of nursing services, and can also indicate connections among patient outcomes and nurse staffing levels, education and skill. It also measures nurse satisfaction through a work environment survey. RNL
