Magnet Designation

Strong Memorial Hospital was redesignated in 2009 and again in 2013, as a Nursing Magnet Hospital, the highest and most prestigious honor an organization can receive for excellence in nursing and quality patient care. The international quality nursing designation is awarded to only about five percent of hospitals in the country.

First designated in August 2004, Strong Memorial Hospital was the first hospital in the Rochester and surrounding region to achieved the prestigious honor. 

The term “Magnet Status” originates from a group of 41 hospitals during a national nursing shortage in the 1980s that nonetheless was able to recruit and retain nurses, serving as a “magnet” for the profession. Strong Memorial was one of those original “Reputational Magnet" hospitals.

From this study, the American Nurses Credentialing Center initially identified 14 Standards to recognize excellence in nursing practice and patient care and award the designation of Magnet status.