Winter Haven Hospital to celebrate nursing Magnet status at Feb. 24th event

February 17, 2009

Winter Haven Hospital will officially celebrate its designation as a nursing Magnet hospital with an event on Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. The public is invited to join hospital staff and community leaders in commemoration of the achievement at the Winter Haven Hospital Healing Garden.

The hospital is the first in Polk County to achieve Magnet status, which has been granted to approximately 5 percent of the nation’s hospitals by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

The celebration has been more than five years in the making. The hospital committed to achieving nursing magnet status as part of its long-standing mission of expanding access to state-of-the-art healthcare in Polk County. Over the past five years, the hospital has opened or expanded facilities that treat heart disease, cancer and stroke. The Hospital also expanded its emergency care department in partnership with the University of Florida College of Medicine / Shands Healthcare and it has achieved national quality recognition for its Regency Medical Center for Infants and Women.

“We want to come together as a community and say thanks to everyone for doing a great job,” said Charles McPherson, chairman of the Winter Haven Hospital Board of Trustees. “At the same time, we want to commit to continuing on our Magnet journey. This truly is just the beginning of an exciting future for Winter Haven Hospital.”

Although the designation is an American Nursing Association standard, it is awarded to the hospital organization as a whole because the excellence in patient care outcomes that the award represents is achieved through the efforts of every staff member, volunteer, and physician on staff at Winter Haven Hospital, said Mary Jo Schreiber, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at the hospital.

“There are so many people who deserve a share of the credit for this designation that it will be hard to thank them all,” Schreiber said. “It truly has been a commitment on the part of not just our nurses, but the entire medical staff, the support staff and our hospital administration.”