Hospital wins 2024 national Magnet Prize for developing psychiatry patient survey

On Oct. 30, Yale New Haven Hospital received the 2024 American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Prize, sponsored by Press Ganey, for developing a psychiatric inpatient survey that will soon be used nationwide.

The award was presented during the 2024 ANCC National Magnet Conference and ANCC Pathway to Excellence Conference in New Orleans. It honors a Magnet-designated organization whose care delivery team develops an innovative project that leads to positive outcomes. YNHH will use the $125,000 prize to further develop its project ‒ the Psychiatric Inpatient Experience (PIX) survey.

The team that developed the survey comprised researchers and clinicians from Psychiatry, Psychology, Nursing, Social Work and Occupational Therapy. In researching existing tools to measure patients’ experiences, staff at Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital (YNHPH) discovered a wide variation in how behavioral health organizations gather data and a general lack of consensus around an accurate survey tool.

The PIX survey assesses care across four domains: nursing presence, healing environment, treatment team relationship and treatment effectiveness. In 2026, the survey will be required for use in more than 1,600 inpatient behavioral health facilities nationwide that participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting Program.

“The development of this innovative psychiatric patient experience tool demonstrates the power of nurses’ collaboration with interprofessional teams to reimagine care for psychiatric patients,” said Ena Williams, RN, PhD, YNHH chief nursing officer. “It has already had a significant organizational impact by providing us with meaningful data to address population-specific needs.”

“The adoption of our survey is a well-deserved recognition of the hard work of many people at Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital,” said Mark Sevilla, RN, DNP, vice president, Behavioral Health and Emergency Services, YNHH. “What began as a local effort to improve the care we provide to our patients has become a national standard. We are also pleased that behavioral health patients and clinicians now have an evidence-based tool to guide them in providing the highest-quality, patient-centered care.”

Watch a video of YNHH’s award acceptance at the national ANCC Magnet conference