The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum have announced the 2014 recipients of the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in three categories: individual achievement, innovation in patient safety and quality at the national level, and innovation in patient safety and quality at the local level.
The award program was launched in 2002 and honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He was a staunch advocate for patient safety and high care quality.
The winners are as follows:
- Individual achievement: Mark Graber, MD, senior fellow in the Health Care Quality and Outcomes Program for RTI International. Dr. Graber has championed reducing diagnostic errors, convening the Diagnostic Error in Medicine conference series, forming the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine and founding a new international journal, Diagnosis. Additionally, he is the co-founder of Patient Safety Awareness Week.
- Innovation in patient safety and quality at the national level: American College of Surgeons National Surgical quality Improvement Program. The ACS NSQIP is designed to measure and improve surgical care quality in participating hospitals. It has been around for more than a decade, and data gathered by the program has been used in more than 600 peer-reviewed articles that highlight how the program has reduced complications, improved outcomes, reduced costs and saved lives.
- Innovation in patient safety and quality at the local level: North Shore-LIJ Health System. The Great Neck, N.Y.-based system has reduced sepsis mortality by 50 percent at 10 acute-care hospitals though a systemwide initiative. The system reduced practice variation and implemented evidence-based best practices to achieve this feat.
"The collective impact of their work is remarkable, because their work has likely impacted an incalculable number of patients by preventing harms across a wide spectrum of different clinical conditions and circumstances," said Mark Chassin, MD, president and CEO of The Joint Commission, of the three award winners.