New Haven, CT (Jan. 30, 2026) – The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has recognized the Medical Intensive Care Units (MICU) at the Saint Raphael and York Street Campuses with silver-level Beacon Awards for Excellence.
The national award recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards, which include skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition and authentic leadership.
“This recognition reflects the exceptional skill, compassion and dedication our MICU teams demonstrate every day,” said Katherine Heilpern, MD, president, Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). “I am immensely proud of how they continually elevate the standard of critical care for our patients and our community.”
The silver-level Beacon Awards for Excellence earned by these MICU teams highlight a disciplined, well-designed approach to clinical operations that is rooted in strong staff and stakeholder engagement, data-driven improvement strategies and performance metrics that consistently surpass critical benchmarks. Together, these units provide care for some of our most complex, critically-ill patients across a combined 89 beds.
“Achieving this milestone for the third consecutive time is a testament to the dedication, collaboration and excellence of our MICU teams,” said Courtney Vose, DNP, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Yale New Haven Hospital. “I am incredibly proud of these teams for their relentless pursuit of exceptional patient-centered care.”
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), part of Yale New Haven Health, is a nationally recognized, 1,541-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826, today, YNHH has two New Haven-based campuses, and also includes Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has received Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the nation’s highest honor of nursing excellence. YNHH has a combined medical staff of about 4,500 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. www.ynhh.org
About the Beacon Award for Excellence: Established in 2003, the Beacon Award for Excellence offers a road map to help guide exceptional care through improved outcomes and greater overall patient satisfaction. U.S. and Canadian units where patients receive their principal nursing care after hospital admission qualify for this excellence award. Units that receive the Beacon Award for Excellence meet criteria in six categories: leadership structures and systems; appropriate staffing and staff engagement; effective communication, knowledge management, and learning and development; evidence-based practice and processes; and outcome measurement. To learn more, visit www.aacn.org/beacon or call 800-899-2226.
About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: For more than 50 years, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has been dedicated to acute and critical care nursing excellence. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. AACN is the world’s largest specialty nursing organization, with about 130,000 members and over 200 chapters in the United States.
