Chamber HappeningsAPRIL 2014

Volume XV/Issue 4

North Jersey Federal Credit Union Continues to Accomodate the Underserved and Small Businesses

Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce

Lourdes Cortez has promoted their line of business loans through their Small Business Summits. Their 4th An-nual Summit is scheduled for Wednes-day, September 17th at 6:00 PM.

When you want to grow sales volume, revenue, product lines or relationships NJFCU offers fixed or variable-rate loans for asset purchases like equip-ment or leasehold improvements. There are also extended terms avail-able for the purchase of more sub-stantial capital assets. Additionally, NJFCU offers loans for the purchase or refinancing of commercial and office real estate.

“A lot of businesses don’t realize we’re

able to meet their needs with business accounts, credit lines and cash flow management,” Cortez said. “The commercial banks are not serving the small mom-and-pop shops and that’s a niche for us.”

Something that NJFCU offers that other non-banks may not is the Busi-ness Rewards Credit Card. Business

Rewards cards are another way small businesses are saving money, and the NJFCU Business Rewards Card has no annual fee. U.S. News recently reported that the average rate on a business rewards credit card, through a bank, is 15.74 percent, and while that is lower than the average 17 percent interest rate on a consumer credit card, it is no match for the NJFCU Business Rewards Credit Card interest rate, which starts at 8 or 9 percent.

One major distinction that NJFCU of-fers is banking products that adhere to Sharia law, which is a way to serve Mus-lim members. Products offered, which are Sharia-compliant are mortgages and home refinancing, mutual funds, and interest-free checking and savings accounts.

A recent survey of 125 compa-nies, conducted by Greenwich Associates showed a significant share of small businesses in the United States obtaining credit from non-bank provid-ers. Nine out of ten companies indicated that they will tap these non-bank lenders again in the future. These results are in line with predications recently made to Chamber Happenings by North Jersey Federal Credit Union’s VP of Marketing and Sales, James Giffin.

In speaking about small busi-ness lending, Giffin explained, “The North Jersey Federal Credit Union stepped in and offered lending opportunities, when traditional banks refused to lend. And we will continue to offer the same services of big banks to small businesses, however, with more favor-able fees.”

Greenwich reported that, in addi-tion to not lending, small businesses turned to non-bank lenders because the process of obtaining credit through non-bank providers is easier.

“Some companies or individuals may appear to be a bad credit risk on paper, but they are not bad people, so we try to work with our members,” said Giffin.

The NJFCU under President and CEO

The “GREEN MACHINE” mobile branch allows North Jersey Federal Credit Union to be right where they want to be: in the community.

At the helm of North Jersey Federal Credit Union, a long standing member of the Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce is President and CEO, Lourdes Cortez

WHAT’s INsIDE GPCC PrEsIDENT APPoINTED To MAyor’s TrANsITIoN TEAM - PG. 5 BErkElEy CollEGE’s WoMEN’s lEADErsHIP PANEl - PG. 7 GPCC GolF oUTING rEsErVATIoN ForM - INsErT INsIDE CONTINUEd... PG. 5

Greater Paterson Chamber of CommerCe

100 Hamilton Plaza, Suite 1201Paterson, NJ 07505

(T) 973-881-7300 (F) 973-881-8233gpcc@greaterpatersoncc.org

ExEcutivE Board of dirEctors:Jim White Jr., White & Shauger Inc.

Vice President/Finance

Irwin Bailey, EBCO Development Corp.Vice President/Retail

Teri Duda, Berkeley CollegeVice President/Education

George Waitts, Crown Roll Leaf Inc.Chairman

Ken Morris, St. Joseph’s Regional Medical CenterVP Governmental Affairs

dirEctors:mark boCChieri, vErizon

James Chappell, JC Printing

Patrick DeDeo, William Paterson University

Robert DeMers, Esq.

Matthew Evans, Evans Architect

Peter Garafano, Garafano Tank Services

Paul Harencak, CLI Group

Joseph Langan, River Drive Construction

Ken Morris Jr., St. Joseph’s Medical Center

Greater Alliance Federal Credit Union

Steve Rose, Passaic County Community College

Kimberly Rupp, TD Bank

Rick Ricca, Board Member Emeritus

Sean Ryan, Hanson & Ryan Inc.

Art Scialla Jr., Ace Reprographic Services

Michael Seeve, Mountain Development Corp

Dan Shiver, Shiver Real Estate Agency

Brett Straten, Associated Fire Protection Inc.

Everton Scott, Public Service Electric & Gas

Nick Tsapatsaris, Center City Partners, LLC

Nick Tselepis, Nicholas Real Estate

Don Vanderbeck Jr., C.J. Vanderbeck & Son Inc.

Mike Campbell, Columbia Bank

staff:James “Jamie” A.M. Dykes II

President

Sheri A. FerreiraAssociate Director/Editor, Chamber Happenings

Gladys BayonOffice Administrator

Chamber Happenings is published by The Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce. Our monthly

publication is THE source for today’s top business news and information as it relates to our members and

the Greater Paterson area.

Want Ink? Send us your announcements. What is new with you and your company? The GPCC wants to promote your goods and services. Are you an expert in your field? Do you have advice to lend to our mem-bers? If so, Chamber Happenings allows members to submit by-lined articles. Send your news, announce-

ments or by-lined articles to Chamber Happenings Editor, Sheri Ferreira at sheri@greaterpatersoncc.org or contact the Chamber via telephone: 973-881-7300.

© All Rights Reserved. If you would like a copy of an article that appeared in Chamber Happenings, for your

own project, please let us know.

Chamber Happenings

Passaic County Fair Will Feature Many Opportunities

I am very pleased to announce that I have recently been appointed to the Friends of Pas-saic County Parks, and in that capacity I am chairing this year’s Passaic County Fair, which will take place from August 14th through the 17th. I am working very closely with Fair Coordinator Marcia Julian, who for years has worked with me on the Great Falls Festival in Paterson.

We are very much looking forward to putting the Passaic County Fair on the map! Pas-saic County has an absolutely awesome park system that most people don’t seem to know about and attending the Fair in August is just one way you can begin to realize the gem that our County parks are.

In addition to live music, amusement rides,

and craft, food, and mer-chandise vendors there are many new additions to the Fair this year, such as a boxing exhibition, battle of the bands, a Super Hero 5K race to benefit Passaic County Casa and a Beer and Wine Garden.

There are many opportunities for Passaic County businesses to participate in this event, which will generate thousands of attendees per day, so I welcome you to contact our office at 973-881-7300 for information about sponsor-ships, tables and booths or information about attractions.

Jamie

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“This is another way that we are serv-ing the under-served,” Cortez said.

A value-added benefit for member-ship is that NJFCU offers “Alliance Marketing.” By opening a small busi-ness account, NJFCU can promote your products and services via the NJFCU website, social media, e-mail campaigns, mailing statements and newsletter, which circulates to the Credit Union’s 32,000 members.

NJFCU also welcomes the opportunity to meet with company employees to explain the benefits of joining the Credit Union.

In fact, North Jersey Federal Credit union has “Loans That Fit.” Whether it’s an auto, personal, vacation, or home loan, there is a product offered. Another great product is Debt Con-solidation, where members may be approved for up to $15,000 at rates as

low as 8.99 percent.

NJFCU continues to expand their services in financial literacy as well. It is no surprise that a recent study re-vealed that people who increase their financial literacy are better prepared for retirement. NJFCU offers financial literacy classes throughout the year, on topics such as retirement planning, estate planning, life insurance, credit repair and other topics.

Both Cortez and Giffin promoted the “Green Machine,” a 38-foot long rec-reational vehicle, which acts a mobile branch. The branch is available to pull up to an establishment or event and deliver the same services you could obtain in a branch.

There are currently 5 branches serv-ing northern NJ. The Paterson branch is located at 126 Main Street, right in Downtown Paterson. Branch Man-ager Alexis Rodriguez can be reached

at 973-785-9200, Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Fridays from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from 10:00 AM through 2:00 PM.

The Totowa branch and headquar-ters, located at 711 Union Blvd., is managed by Thomas Hollywood and he can be reached at 973-785-9200 (option 4) on Monday through Wednesday rom 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM, Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Who is eligible to join NJFCU? If you live, work, worship, attend school or regularly conduct business in Passaic or Bergen Counties or the underserved areas of Essex or Union Counties, you are eligible to join.

More information about North Jersey Federal Credit Union can be found at www.njfcu.org.

Mayor Torres appoinTs GpCC presidenT JaMie dykes To TransiTion TeaMMayor Jose “Joey” Torres announced recently his appointment of 12 people to his transition team, includ-ing Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce President Jamie Dykes.

Jamie and his fellow transi-tion team members will complete a thorough review of key city departments and agencies to provide Mayor-elect Torres with informa-tion needed to make important policy and personnel decisions.

“I am pleased to announce my transi-tion team, members of the larger New Jersey community, whose work I admire and trust. Their expertise is invaluable to me and in the months ahead I’ll be relying strongly on their advice as we work to meet the challenges that face the great City of

Paterson and as we take measures to move the city onward,” said Mayor-elect Joey Torres.

“Throughout the following months, our transition pro-cess will also include public, community meetings with City residents, stakehold-ers and all who have a deep commitment to Paterson’s future. Soon we will be pro-viding an email address and

want to encourage everyone to be part of this interactive dialogue.”

The Transition team members will make recommendations on a series of fields, including; Law and Public Safety, Job growth and Economic Development, Budget, Urban plan-ning, municipal government and the environment.

Dykes will Co-Chair the Economic Development and Small Business Committees with Manuel Gonzalez, who currently serves as President of the Latino Merchants Association of New Jersey. He is also owner of Costambar Restaurant in Paterson.

“I am personally honored at being chosen to serve in the capacity of Co-Chair of the Economic Develop-ment and Small Business Commit-tees on Mayor Torres’ Transition Team and I look forward to engaging stakeholders from all over Paterson to help identify areas of need for this process.”

Transition Team Members:Lori Grifa – is a former Commissioner of the NJ Department of Community Affairs, where she chaired the NJ Meadowlands Commission,

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the NJ Redevelop-ment Agency, the NJ Council on Affordable Housing and the NJ Housing Mortgage Finance Agency. Dur-ing her tenure, Ms. Grifa helped create 3,000 units of afford-able housing and managed the an-nual grant programs involving nearly $500 million. Ms. Grifa will Chair the Housing and Community Develop-ment committee.

Charles Latini, PP, AICP – is the Man-aging Partner of L&G Planning LLC – Planning, Design & Redevelopment. His firm helps municipalities cre-ate sustainable communities through informative open public dialogue. His company works towards building understanding of the complexities and consequences of land develop-ment decisions and creating strate-gies for implementation. An expert urban planner, Mr. Latini will Chair the Transit and Open Space and Rec-reation committee.

Jennifer Senick, MA, PhD Can-didate - is the Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Green Building at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Policy Development at Rutgers University. She is an experi-enced urban planner and was trained in Political Science, Economics and Public Policy from Bowdoin Col-lege, the University of California, Los Angeles and the Rand Corporation. Ms. Senick will serve as Chair of the Environment, Remediation of Brown-fields and Sustainability committee.

Vaughn McKoy, JD, MBA - served as

first in command in the NJ Division of Criminal Justice and as federal prosecutor in the United States’ Attorney’s Office. Since 2006 he serves as Chief Legal Counsel to PSEG Long Island, a subsidiary of the Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. He is also President of the PSEG Founda-tion and Director of Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability. He’s a graduate of NYU’s School of Business and Rutgers Law School. Mr. McKoy was born and raised in the City of Paterson and is a product of its public schools. He is author of Playing Up: One Man’s rise From Public Housing to Public Service through Mentor-ship. Mr. McKoy will Chair the Law and Public Safety committee.

Frank M. Donato - is a retired Judge to the New Jersey Superior Court and appointed Judge of the Passaic County District court. As NJ Superior Court Judge he chaired the Supreme Court’s Model Criminal Jury Charge committee. Judge Donato has an extensive experience in law having served as Law Secretary to the NJ Supreme Court, Assistant Prosecutor for Passaic County, and directing his law firm Donato & Donato. He cur-rently serves as Counsel to Vivino & Vivino in Wayne, ADR clients include several NJ municipalities including Paterson. Judge Donato will serve as Chair of the Law committee.

Thomas Rooney – is a former Mayor of Paterson. A native Patersonian, he also served as Councilman for the 6th Ward for over 28 years. Mr. Rooney is most recog-nized for his unwavering campaign in favor of the Paterson Falls Park and his fiscally responsible budgets. Because of his extensive knowledge

on Paterson government, Mr. Rooney will serve as Chair and advisor of the Municipal government committee.

Freeholder Theodore O. Best, Jr. (T. J. Best) - is the youngest Freeholder ever elected in Pas-saic County. He was born and raised in the City of Paterson and at an early age got involved in student government at East Side High School and the City’s NAACP, youth divi-sion where he became president of both. Freeholder Best has served as Commissioner and President of the Paterson Board of Education and as Program Director of the Great Falls Youth Development Center and Advi-sor for the Paterson Youth Council. He currently serves on the Human Services Committee and as Chair of the Planning and Economic Develop-ment Committee as well as Chair of the Health, Education and Com-munity Outreach. Mr. Best will Chair the County Government and Shared Services committee.

Peter Soriero – is proprietor of Al-lied Risk Management Services and specializes in claims administration, insurance procurement programs and administration of insurance funds. He is an expert in liability claims defense and investigation and settlement of liability insurance claims. Mr. Soriero will serve as Chair of Insurance and Risk Management.

James Gallagher - has served as Director of Personnel, Customer Service and Information Technology for the Passaic Valley Water Commis-sion since 1990. He is an expert on contract negotiation. He previously served as Director of Policy Planning and Management for the City of Pat-erson (1990-1994,) where he advised on policy, budget, planning and

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32 years in Paterson’s Public Schools. Mr. Cheff was born in Paterson and will serve as Chair of the Education committee.

Michael O’Reilly – retired Chief of the Jersey City Fire Depart-ment, has over 29 years in public service experi-ence having served in every rank for the Jersey City Fire Department, the second largest fire department in the state of New Jersey. Chief O’Reilly also served as Hudson County Fire Coordinator and was Jersey City Fire Representative for USA Region I. He will serve as Chair for Fire Depart-ment services. CH

ber of numerous Advisory Boards and Commissions. Mr. Dykes will Co-Chair the Economic Development and Small Business committees.

Manuel González – is owner of Costambar Restaurant in Paterson, NJ and founder of the Costambar baseball league. He currently serves as President of the Association of Latino Merchants of NJ, ADCLAN-NJ. He was born in Luperon-Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic and has resides in Paterson since 1996. Mr. Gonzalez will serve as Co-Chair of the Econom-ic Development and Small Business committees.

Joseph Cheff - is President of the Passaic County Education Associa-tions Inc., which counts with 12,000 members. He has been a teacher for

development of the Urban Enterprise Zone. Mr. Gallagher was an Adjunct Professor of Public Administration at Kean University and will Chair the Budget and Personnel committee.

Jamie Dykes – is founding member of the Downtown Paterson Special Improvement District Inc. and is President of the Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce, since 2001. A well-recognized member of the community, Mr. Dykes is a member of numerous distinguished associa-tion such as: the Paterson Rotary Club, member of the Board of Direc-tors Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce 1992-2000, Chairman of the Paterson Restoration Corporation from 2001- 2012, Advisory Board member of the Paterson Economic Development Corporation and mem-

Political leaders offered inspiration and insight at the Sixth Annual Women’s Leadership Panel recently sponsored by Berkeley College at the Brownstone in Paterson, NJ. Seven dis-tinguished leaders spoke to legislators, residents of northern New Jersey, members of local cham-bers of commerce, as well as Berkeley College stu-dents and associates about the challenges women face in business and how to overcome them. Most agreed society has come a long way, but there is still work to be done. Senator Robert M. Gordon said he advises his col-leagues to get rid of the stereotypes. “I try to do what I can to make op-portunities happen for women,” he said. “I try to be a mentor.”

Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi said that her

female friends helped nurture her, and helped her get a foot in the door. “Then it was up to me,” she added. “If you have a job you believe

in, a policy you believe in, to make things happen you have to have a backbone.” A leader in providing career-focused education for more than 80 years, Berkeley College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and enrolls approximately 8,000 students — including more than 900 international students — in its Baccalaureate and Associ-ate degree and Certificate programs. The College has six New Jersey locations — Woodland Park, Paramus, Woodbridge, Newark, Clifton and Dover. In New York there are three locations — Mid-town Manhattan, Brooklyn

and White Plains. Berkeley College Online® also offers full degree pro-grams. Programs are offered in more than 20 career fields. The website address is www.BerkeleyCollege.edu.

Berkeley ColleGe HosTs 6TH annual WoMen’s leadersHip panel disCussion

Guest speakers on the Berkeley College sixth Annual Women’s Leadership Panel are, front row, left to right, Gail Gordon, Political strategist; senator Robert M. Gordon, 38th district; Teri duda, se-nior vice President, Government Relations, Berkeley College (Panel Moderator). Back row, left to right, are senator Nellie Pou, 35th district; Assemblywoman shavonda sumter, deputy speaker, 35th district; Assemblywoman Holly schepisi, 39th district; the Honor-able Bernice Toledo, Passaic County surrogate; and Lauren Murphy, director of Passaic County One stop.

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Alexis Rodriguez

Branch Manager Hablamos Español

Where Smart Businesses Bank! North Jersey Federal Credit Union 126 Market St . , Paterson, NJ 07505

973-785-9200 | www.njfcu.org

Golfers WanTed: 13TH annual VinCenT CorTese Golf ouTinG seT for July 23rdThe 13th Annual Golf Outing, hosted by the Greater Paterson Chamber of Commerce is not just an anticipated day of fun out of the office. The GPCC Golf Outing brings together a variety of business men and women to spend the day networking and promoting their businesses and products, while enjoying a day on the green.

For businesses there are many op-tions for networking, especially through the Chamber. The Golf Outing is unique because it offers Chamber members and their friends the chance to spend meaningful time together. Compared to a one-hour lunch or speed networking event, golf gives one the opportunity to really get to know someone instead of hear-ing their elevator pitch and grabbing a business card on the way out the door.

Unlike an office setting, the golf course affords you the opportunity to observe a person’s decision making process and temperment through their responses to outcomes. This re-veals important aspects of a person’s character, including patience, temper, modesty, honesty, competitiveness, logic and ego. There is a lot to learn about someone from a simple round of golf, which to some, is the beauty of networking on the golf course. Of course, if you are in it for the fun rec-reation of the sport, that is also great!

The Chamber likes fun!

One may decide to treat a client to a round of golf and this is a good way to solidify a relationship. Others may decide to support the event with a full foursome of associates from your company. When someone wishes to golf as part of a twosome the Chamber takes special steps to ensure that the golfers are paired with team mates who would benefit from networking with you, and vice versa.

Taking place at the Chrystal Spring Golf resort in Hamburg, our golfers will begin checking in at 11:30 when lunch will be available. A compli-mentary bucket of golf balls will be waiting for them at the driving range for a warm-up and then a shot-gun style start is at 1:00 PM.

A shotgun start is a when all golfers tee off simulateously from differ-ent holes on the course. This format keep the flow of the day continuous and allows for all players to finish and enjoy the dinner and networking that follows the day of golf.

Dinner features an open-bar, buffet dinner and skill prizes presentation, where more networking happens. This is also where a lot of golfers ex-change a lot of light-hearted stories about their play.

GPCC President Jamie Dykes ex-plained, “This golf outing is one for golfers of all skill levels and even be-ginners are welcomed to participate. They are made to feel comfortable.”

If a Chamber member or friend of the Chamber does not want to play golf, there are still ways to benefit from the event. Various sponsorship opportunities ranging in cost from $175 for a tee flag all the way to $3500 as the Event Sponsor. These sponsorships bring exposure to your company and services as well as sup-port the Chamber.

Reservations for the dinner por-tion of the event are also available for $50.00, so even if you are not a golfer, you can still take advantage of the networking and fun stories of the day!

For more information about this event, please see the insert inside this issue of Chamber Happenings. Reservations for foursomes, two-somes, single golfers, sponsorships and dinner-only tickets are now being accepted. Simply call Gladys Bayon at 973-881-7300. More infor-mation can be found on our website at www.greaterpatersoncc.org.

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Where is Your urban strategY?the smart moneY is in investing in Paterson

Good morning - ac-cording to an article in USA Today, there is an overall shift in the population from the suburbs to the

cities. Based on the study, out of the 381 metro areas they tracked, three out of four of the cities experienced an increase in its population (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/na-tion/2014/03/27/census-cities-met-ro-growth-population/6863219/). Note the article.

Let’s pretend this is true and since Paterson is a city, it would seem to me that a lot of emphasis should be put on our city. Wayne Gretzky, who was arguably one of the greatest hockey players ever, said, ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ This is why Pater-son makes sense. The trend is to the cities and now is the time to get in. Commercial and residential buyers, investors and developers should be looking very strongly at Paterson.

Paterson is still very affordable compared to a lot of other suburban and urban locations. Paterson is near

every major thoroughfare that can take you anywhere you want to go and vice-versa. ALL ROADS LEAD TO PATERSON!!!

Paterson has demographics that run the cultural and financial gamut. We need all kinds of products and services. Paterson has many incentives to in-vest from a commercial and residen-tial standpoint.

Recently, I spoke to a new developer in town, David Tasci, 5 Colt St, about why he came to Paterson to do a development project. I said to him he must have been told not to come to Paterson and he said, Paterson makes sense; it’s centrally located and very affordable’. Getting in now is the right time.’ Over the last ten years, there have been hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the city. This is SMART MONEY!!!

Here is a partial list of the resources available to people looking to do business or looking to live in Pater-son. I say partial list because there are so many resources available that I can’t name them all here and there

are many that I don’t know.

1. Paterson Economic Develop-ment 2. Paterson Restoration Corpo-ration - low cost loans 3. Small Business Development Center 4. Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) 5. Community Development – in particular housing grants

If you are in business, it’s smart to be here. Sooner or later we will see national causal dining corporations in Paterson. My last thought for this article. I find it very interesting that several national organizations are hemorrhaging money and continue working their suburban strategies; but they are not opening in the Pat-ersons of the world. They have their reasons/research/studies/business models/logic, etc. (nonsense) that they don’t do anything here; but at some point they are going to wake up and they’ll see what Patersonians have known all the time.

If you have any questions or feed-back, please call me at 973-684-5505x201 or email me at danshiver@

Written by: Dan Shiver, Broker of The Shiver Real Estate Agency

sJrMC receives Highest nursing Credential With prestigious Magnet® recognition . . . for the 4th Consecutive Time!St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, which includes St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, has again attained Magnet® recognition as part of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program® -- for the fourth time, 16 consecutive years. This voluntary credentialing program for hospitals recognizes ex-cellence in nursing and is the highest honor an organization can receive for professional nursing practice.

“Magnet Recognition serves as a means for acknowledging peak performance and recog-nizes extraordinary in-novations that transform hospital environments – it is an incredible source of pride for our nurses and St. Joseph’s as a whole. The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program surveyors complimented St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center’s high stan-

dard for nursing education, includ-ing our doctorate, masters and BSN nurses; St. Joseph’s many state and national recognitions; our

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• Higher job satisfaction among nurses, and• Lower nurse reports of inten-tions to leave position.

“We’re a better institution today be-cause of our longstanding history as a Magnet hospital,” said Mrs. Bren-nan. “Magnet continues to enable us to raise the bar for patient care and inspires every member of our health care team to achieve excellence daily. It is this commitment to providing our community with high-quality care that enabled St. Joseph’s to be-come the 15th hospital in the United States to be granted ANCC Magnet Recognition for the first time 16 years ago, and it’s why we continue to be recognized as a Magnet hospi-tal today.”

Being granted Magnet recognition for the fourth time since 1999 is a great achievement for St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, as it contin-ues to proudly belong to the Mag-net community—a select group of 401 healthcare organizations out of nearly 6,000 U.S. healthcare orga-nizations. Hospitals must reapply for Magnet recognition every four years based on adherence to Magnet concepts and demonstrated improve-ments in patient care and quality.

“Receiving Magnet recognition for the fourth time confirms what we already know – that St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, includ-ing St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital nurses are among our Nation’s very best! It is with great pleasure that we add this momentous success to our long list of accomplishments,” said William A. McDonald, President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Joseph’s Healthcare System.

a range of excellence, an on-site visit will occur to thoroughly assess the applicant. After this rigorous onsite review process, the Commission on Magnet will review the completed appraisal report and vote to deter-mine whether Magnet recognition will be granted.

An organization seeking to reapply for Magnet recognition must pro-vide documented evidence of how Magnet concepts, performance, and quality were sustained and improved over the period since the hospital received its most recent recognition.

In particular, the Magnet Model is designed to provide a framework for nursing practice, research, and measurement of outcomes. Through

this framework, ANCC can assess ap-plicants across a number of compo-nents and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence. The foundation of this model is com-posed of various elements deemed essential to delivering superior pa-tient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordina-tion and collaboration across special-ties, as well as processes for measur-ing and improving the quality and delivery of care.

Magnet recognition has been shown to provide specific benefits to hospi-tals and their communities, such as:• Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availabil-ity of help, and receipt of discharge information,• Lower risk of 30-day mortal-ity and lower failure to rescue,

innovative programs, including the Emergency Department Pivot Nurs-ing Project; and the overall strength of our Magnet recognition applica-tion and survey results, as these all pertain to St. Joseph’s outstanding efforts in providing consistently superior patient care amidst a period of facility expansion and renova-tion,” said Maria Brennan, DNP, RN, CPHQ, Chief Nursing Officer, St. Joseph’s Healthcare System, and Vice President, Patient Care Services, St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center.

“St. Joseph’s is extremely proud and honored to earn Magnet recogni-tion for the fourth consecutive time. It is yet another confirmation of the excellent health services that our organization offers to the many thousands of people who depend on us for their life’s care,” added Mrs. Brennan. “This is an organization that truly values its nursing team. Along with many years as a Magnet hospital, St. Joseph’s Regional Medi-cal Center is also distinguished as the only winner, world-wide of The Magnet Prize® in 2010, awarded to St. Joseph’s for innovative nursing practice.”

Magnet recognition has become the gold standard for nursing excellence and is taken into consideration when the public judges healthcare organi-zations. In fact, U.S. News & World Report’s annual showcase of “Ameri-ca’s Best Hospitals” includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care.

To achieve initial Magnet recognition, organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that demands widespread participation from lead-ership and staff. The process begins with the submission of an application demonstrating qualitative and quan-titative evidence regarding patient care and outcomes. If scores from the written documentation fall within

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