The National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations congratulate the recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Awards. This year, winners were selected in each of the four Award categories.
For complete information about any of the award-winning initiatives, refer to: Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety, December 2004, Vol. 30, No. 12.
The honorees, by award category, are:
Individual Achievement
Lucian Leape, M.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass., for his fundamental conceptual contributions to contemporary understanding of the nature of medical errors and the extent of the patient safety problem, and for his tireless efforts to improve the safety of care for all patients.
Research Achievement
Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md., for his creative research initiatives that have led to dramatic improvements in the safety and quality of care in intensive care units.
Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a National or Regional Level (2 winners)
Kaveh G. Shojania, M.D., and Robert M. Wachter, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., for the creation of a highly successful case-based approach to educating practitioners, provider organization leaders, policy-makers, and patients about patient safety issues—through the professional literature, the World Wide Web, and a best-selling nonfiction book.
Major Danny Jaghab, M.S., R.D., of Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, for the creation of a distance learning program — now available through the U.S. Department of Defense —that provided education about sentinel events, root cause analyses, risk-reduction strategies, and policies and recommendations associated with the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals.
Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Local or Organization Level
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center —McKeesport, McKeesport, Penn., for development of personalized patient safety self-learning packets which have demonstrated their effectiveness in creating an organization culture of patient safety that facilitates the resolution of problems associated with hospital-acquired infections and falls.
"We applaud each of these outstanding winners for their innovative thinking and their passion for improving patient safety," said Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, Joint Commission. "Their achievements have measurably advanced patient safety in the United States."
"I am pleased to add my congratulations to this year's recipients of the Eisenberg Awards," said Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H., president and chief executive officer, NQF. "Like John Eisenberg, these award recipients have demonstrated their commitment to improving the quality and safety of healthcare by their actions. Their example is a source of inspiration for all of us."
The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002 by NQF and the Joint Commission, honors John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A., administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at the time of his death in March of 2002. Eisenberg was one of the founding leaders of the NQF and sat on its board of directors. In his roles both as AHRQ administrator and chair of the federal government's Quality Inter-Agency Coordination Task Force, he was a passionate advocate for patient safety and health care quality and personally led AHRQ's grant program to support patient safety research.
The Eisenberg Award categories recognize individuals and organizations for:
- Individual Achievement – Individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and scholarship in patient safety and health care quality through a substantive body of work.
- Research – Projects that involve the scholarly or scientific investigation of patient safety or new applications of quality measurement, reporting, or improvement.
- Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a National or Regional Level – Original projects or initiatives resulting in successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer or improve advocacy on behalf of patients. Such projects have national or regional impact and may involve technology, protocols, educational approaches, organization culture change, or systems theory applications, among others.
- Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local or Organizational Level – Original projects or initiatives resulting in successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer or improve advocacy on behalf of patients. These efforts have their primary impacts at the local or organization level, and may involve technology, protocols, organization culture change, educational approaches, legislation, or system theory applications, among others.
Potential awardees may be considered in each category each year. However, an award need not be given in each category every year. Eighty nominations were received for the 2004 awards.