Magnet Recognition

Cape Coral Hospital Magnet Journey

Cape Coral Hospital, a 291-bed health care hub centrally located on Del Prado Boulevard in Cape Coral, provides a wide range of services to the community, from special nursery care to weight management, diabetes, and chronic disease programs. As part of Lee Health, Cape Coral Hospital and its staff work hard each day to provide a safe and healthy environment for patients and visitors — focused on safety, prevention, and community connection.

Our Magnet Journey began in 2020 as we started making steps towards empowering our nursing staff, creating innovations in professional nursing practice, and building greater nursing research. The American Nurses Credentialing Center developed the Magnet Recognition Program for Excellence in Nursing Services. The five key components of the Magnet model include: Transformational Leadership; Structural Empowerment; Exemplary Professional Practice, New Knowledge, Innovations & Improvement, and Empirical Outcomes.

Magnet Recognition

Magnet-recognized organizations demonstrate to the community the invaluable potential of nurses to lead healthcare change leading to improved patient outcomes. The Journey to Magnet designation creates a culture of investment and continual support in nursing education and development, interprofessional collaboration, and practice focused on mutual respect, autonomy, and shared values.

RN Engagement

The results of becoming a Magnet organization include higher nurse satisfaction (19% average increase) and engagement, with higher nurse retention (4.5% less turnover than industry average). Nine out of nine healthcare organizations in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” are Magnet Recognized or have Magnet Facilities in their system. Also 45% of the top quartile for physician engagement were Magnet designated hospitals.

Patient Satisfaction

This means a higher standard of care for patients. All 20 of the Top 20 US News Best Hospitals Honor Roll are Magnet Recognized. There are 11 Magnet recognized hospitals within the Baldrige Performance Excellence Award for Healthcare. Lastly, Magnet hospitals outperform the non-magnet hospitals on patients “likelihood to recommend” top box scores (75.7 compared to 70.8).

Quality

With a higher standard of care, mortality rates decrease to 14% at Magnet hospitals. In the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, Magnet designation automatically earns full credit for Safe Practice #9 Nursing Workforce. Also the mean score for Magnet Facilities for “skill of the physician” was 93.2 while non-Magnet facilities was 92.1. Patients at Magnet facilities have shorter hospital stays, improved quality and safety, and decreased falls, infections, and hospital-acquired pressure ulcer rates.Learn how our system-wide quality safety initiatives are contributing towards the overall quality and zero harm mission that is a priority to Lee Health.

Becoming “Magnet”

Reaching this height of becoming a Magnet recognized organization provides the Southwest Florida community the opportunity for healthcare delivered at the ultimate benchmark and gold standard. It is a tremendous honor to be on this journey and reflects our commitment to our nursing staff, the medical community, and most of all, our patients.

Examples of foundational elements to meet standards of the Magnet Model include:

• Unit practice shared governance councils
• Culture of nursing excellence
• Nursing research and evidence-based practice
• Interprofessional collaboration
• Healthy work environment – Joy!
• Continual professional development
• Employee recognition, growth, and development
• Data on improved patient outcomes