NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Adult Intensive Care Units Earn National Beacon Awards for Excellence
Two Adult Intensive Care Units were recognized nationally for clinical excellence
Mar 16, 2026
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County today announced that two of its adult critical care units have been nationally recognized by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) through the prestigious Beacon Award for Excellence program. The D3 South Critical Care Unit (CCU)/Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) earned the 2024 Gold Beacon Award for Excellence, and the D3 North Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU)/Neonatal Surgical Intensive Care Unit (NSICU) earned the 2025 Silver Beacon Award for Excellence. These honors recognize sustained excellence in patient care, nursing practice, and the creation of healthy work environments grounded in evidence-based practice. Across both units, nursing workforce metrics reflect the depth of clinical expertise supporting these outcomes. Ninety five percent of nurses hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, the average tenure on the units is eight years, and the average total nursing experience approaches thirteen years.
D3 South – CCU/MICU, recipient of the 2024 Gold Beacon Award, demonstrated exceptional performance across multiple domains, including patient outcomes, professional development, continuing education, nurse well-being, and initiatives advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. This designation reflects sustained excellence and positions the unit among a select group of ICUs nationally recognized at the Gold level.
D3 North – SICU/NSICU, recipient of the 2025 Silver Beacon Award, showed strong performance in clinical outcomes, teamwork, leadership engagement, and evidence-based practice, highlighting a culture of continuous improvement and commitment to high quality surgical and neurocritical care.
“This achievement underscores our organization’s commitment to clinical excellence and continuous improvement,”said NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Chief Executive Officer Sheldon McLeod. “The Beacon Award highlights our culture of excellence and reinforces our commitment to advancing patient care.”
“Kings County Hospital has achieved tremendous success with their CCU and MICU earning the Gold Beacon Award and their SICU and NSICU earning 2025 Silver Beacon Award,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive Natalia Cineas, DNP, MSM-N, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, FADLN. “I am proud to celebrate the teams who worked together to create cultures of nursing excellence, staff professional development, and high clinical quality.”
“I am exceptionally proud of our critical care nurses and interdisciplinary teams for earning these distinguished recognitions,”said NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Chief Nursing Officer Opal Sinclair-Chung, BSN, MS, MSNE.“Together, these achievements affirm the strength, expertise, clinical excellence, evidence-based practice, and the delivery of safe, compassionate care to our most vulnerable patients.”
“Evidence based practice is not a concept for our nurses. It is how care is delivered,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Director of Nursing for the D3 North and D3 South Critical Care Units Silvanus Michel, MSM-NL, BSN, CCRN. “Through data driven decision making, interdisciplinary collaboration, and frontline ownership, our teams have transformed evidence into an outcomes-driven culture that consistently improves patient care.”
“I am incredibly proud of the ICU team I lead,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Assistant Director of Nursing for the D3 North and D3 South Critical Care Units Gem Snagg, RN, BS. “Their unwavering dedication to patient comfort and clinical excellence is inspiring. Together, we have transformed our unit’s approach to compassionate care, which has directly enhanced patient outcomes and strengthened team morale.”
###
MEDIA CONTACT: Alexis Davis, Chief Communications Officer, NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
#059-26
About NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County is a 639-bed acute care teaching hospital located in Central Brooklyn. Among our highly specialized programs are a Level I Trauma Center, Pediatric Emergency Room, Level 3 Perinatal Center, Heart Health Center, Stroke Center, Sickle Cell Program, Behavioral Health Center, and Diabetes Education Center of Excellence. Many of our programs have received national recognition, including our cardiac, stroke and diabetes services. The hospital offers a broad array of primary and specialty care, including practices in neuroscience, orthopedics, urology and cardiology. Annually, our ambulatory care practices see well over 500,000 visits, and more than 150,000 visits in the Behavioral Health outpatient program, in addition to close to 23,000 inpatient discharges. NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County has played a major role in providing health care to vulnerable populations in Brooklyn since 1831, and is part of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the nation. For more information visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org/kingscounty and stay connected on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KingsCountyHosp or Twitter at @KingsCountyHosp.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlusHealth—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 46,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.