How are you defining Critical Care units? For instance, are step-down units and telemetry units included?
We purposely did not define specific critical care units. Our criteria is not exclusionary to the “type” of unit. There are some of the patient outcome criteria that might not be applicable to your unit; only you could evaluate that. If you take a look at the evaluation criteria, and your unit can answer those, then we will definitely evaluate your unit for the award. Beacon Audit Tool available from the Beacon Table of Contents We started with adult critical care units, because there was a great deal of literature and research to support quality and outcome measures for those units. One of our volunteers who participated in the alpha and beta testing of the questions and the award process, was a manager of a progressive care unit. Although some criteria are very specific to patient populations, most criteria are related to ethics, recruitment, retention, collaboration, etc., which could be attributed to any excellent unit, Med/Surg, Progressive Care, Transport, etc. We hope your unit
