7-3400 First Progressive Care Unit in State to Receive AACN Honor

The progressive care nursing unit that serves cardiac patients of the Program in Heart Failure and Transplantation at the University of Rochester Medical Center is the first such unit in New York state to be honored with the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. It is one of only four progressive care units in the nation to receive the honor this year.

The team of 7-3400 is recognized for its high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and families, and a healthy work environment. The unique unit is considered a provider of progressive care, at a level between an intensive care unit and a step-down unit.

Its nursing staff possesses specialized expertise when caring for pre- and post- heart transplant patients, who in many cases require the implantation of artificial heart pumps or pulmonary artery catheters that measure heart pressure.

“Many of the heart failure and transplant patients on 7-3400 would in most other medical centers be hospitalized in an ICU due to the level of care they require,” said Anna Lambert, R.N., M.S., associate director for cardiovascular nursing. “Yet exceptional expertise allows these patients to be transferred from the Cardiovascular ICU to 7-3400, to receive expert care in a less-intensive setting.”

Staff members are proud to be acknowledged by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses with the prestigious Beacon Award.

“This validates the superior quality of care the team exhibits each and every day,” said nurse manager Annette Grindle, R.N., “and we are thrilled to be recognized for something into which we put our hearts and souls. The patients and their loved ones are like family to us, and us to them. That mutual relationship, coupled with the unit’s specialized heart failure and transplant care, results in an environment where everyone can thrive.”

Two other URMC intensive care units – the Cardiovascular ICU and the surgical ICU – also were honored earlier this year with a Beacon Award. It is unusual to have three units in a medical center recognized consecutively, according to the AACN.