Raising the Bar Even Higher

Fort Worth is an amazing city. The biggest small town in the world is the center of cowboy culture, an internationally respected art and music destination, and boasts a renown culinary scene. But did you know we also have some of the best nurses in North America?

It’s true. In a single day you could enjoy some of the best BBQ or Mexican food on earth, watch a cattle drive, stroll through galleries of world-famous paintings and sculptures, hear an opera, and heaven forbid if you fall off your horse, receive second-to-none medical treatment. That’s because, as of last month, Baylor Scott & White All Saints in Fort Worth has been awarded their second Magnet Designation and their first Magnet with Distinction by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

The Magnet with Distinction Recognition Program® was started in 2023 to celebrate hospitals and health care organizations that exceed the scoring thresholds required to attain Magnet® designation, which Baylor Scott & White All Saints had previously achieved. The award is only bestowed upon hospitals that are able to demonstrate, through validated empirical data, a level of nursing excellence that sets them head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, only .26% of hospitals operate at a level that warrant Magnet with Distinction Recognition!

Baylor All Saints Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Ulondia Lee, said of the momentous occasion, “As a mother myself, I know how important it is to feel confident in the care you and your family receive. Achieving Magnet with Distinction reaffirms our commitment to delivering the highest standard of nursing excellence, compassionate care, and patient outcomes. It’s a true honor to serve a community of families who trust us with their most precious moments — from welcoming new life to supporting every stage of health and healing.”

Achieving Magnet level status is an enormous source of pride for any hospital, but a Magnet with Distinction designation raises that already high bar of excellence to heights that are truly lofty. Only top-tier nursing programs are able to achieve such accolades, and those few that have done so are the elite of the nursing profession.

The award is an overt validation of a nursing staff’s hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence in nursing and patient care. It provides external recognition from top accrediting bodies and industry peers that the organization has gone above and beyond in the areas of nurse engagement and patient experience. Magnet with Distinction designation serves as a testament to an organization’s commitment to achieving excellence and dedication to constant improvement. It is only bestowed upon organizations that are able to demonstrate the highest standards of nursing practices.

There are two paths to achieve Magnet and Magnet with Distinction awards. A hospital must demonstrate no deficiencies in any component and have an exemplar in registered nurse engagement, and/or have no deficiencies in any component of the requirements, have two or more exemplars in patient experience, and at least two exemplars in nursing-sensitive indicators. The standards are extremely high.

According to Tatum Leonard, Director of Clinical Excellence at Baylor All Saints Medical Center, Fort Worth, who was instrumental in achieving these awards, “This distinction was extremely hard to obtain, but we never did it for the recognition. Our nurses and healthcare team live by our values, which is to empower people to live well. We are dedicated to providing only the most compassionate and cutting-edge care, backed by data and research. We have committed to serve the Fort Worth community with excellence, integrity, and heart—because that’s what our patients deserve, and that’s who we are.”

All of the hard work and dedication needed to achieve these awards has paid off for the Nurses at Baylor Scott & White, but Fort Worth is the real winner. We are extremely lucky and to have access to such high standards of care. Congratulations to the nurses and all of the staff at Baylor Scott & White for this truly spectacular achievement, but mostly, thank you from a grateful city for providing so many of us with the best care possible!