OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL, and WASHINGTON, DC--The National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations today announced the 2006 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. The honorees selected in each of the four award categories are:

Individual Achievement 

Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, KBE, is president, CEO and cofounder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston.   Dr. Berwick has published extensively in professional journals in the areas of health care policy, decision analysis, technology assessment, and health care quality management. Dr. Berwick has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Joint Commission’s 1999 Ernest A. Codman Award, and, in 2001, the first Alfred I. DuPont Award for excellence in children’s health care from Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health care provider organizations. In 2002, he was given the “Award of Honor” from the American Hospital Association for outstanding leadership in improving health care quality, and in 2004, he was inducted as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. In 2005, in recognition of his exemplary work for the National Health Service in the UK, he was appointed honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire—the highest award given to non-British citizens. 

Research 

Jerry H. Gurwitz, MD, is a nationally recognized expert in geriatric medicine and the use of drug therapy in the elderly.  He holds the Dr. John Meyers Endowed Chair in Primary Care Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he is chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine/Community Health.  He also serves as the executive director of the Meyers Primary Care Institute.  He has been the recipient of the William B. Abrams Award in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the George F. Archambault Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.  Dr. Gurwitz's most recent research efforts relate to developing and testing interventions to reduce the risk of medication errors that lead to adverse drug events in the elderly.

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Regional Level (2 Recipients)

Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS), established in 2000, is a partnership between the Minnesota Hospital Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Minnesota Department of Health, and more than 50 other public-private health care organizations to improve patient safety.  MAPS is a forum for sharing best practices and fostering commitment to patient safety improvement efforts.

Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority is an independent state agency charged with taking steps to reduce and eliminate medical errors by identifying problems and recommending solutions that promote patient safety in hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, birthing centers, and other facilities.

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Local Level

The Wichita Citywide Heart Care Collaborative represents 5 institutions that developed multidisciplinary teams in November 2003 to meet the common goal of providing quality care in their community.  This unique initiative enlisted the support of the city’s key decision-makers to work together to improve patient care.  Their combined efforts have provided valuable lessons and opportunities for sharing in-depth knowledge, resulting in the establishment of patient safety and quality improvement goals that exceeded the reach of any one of the organizations working in isolation.

This year’s awards will be presented on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at NQF’s Annual Policy Conference on Quality in Washington, DC. The December 2006 issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety will feature the achievements of each of the award recipients.

The NQF and Joint Commission applaud each of these outstanding recipients for their efforts which have advanced patient safety in the United States.

The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002 by NQF and the Joint Commission, honors John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  Dr. 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 Awards categories are:

Individual Achievement – Individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and scholarship in patient safety and health care quality through a substantive body of work.

Research – Individuals or projects that involve the scholarly or scientific investigation of patient safety or quality measurement, reporting or improvement.

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a National or Regional Level – Projects or initiatives involving successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer, or that advocate on the patient’s behalf. These efforts may involve technology, protocols/procedures, education, organization culture, legislation, the media, and systems theory, among others. The focus of the project or initiative extends beyond local areas to achieve national or regional impact.

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local or Organizational Level – Projects or initiatives involving successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer, or that advocate on the patient’s behalf, and are new to the organization. These efforts may involve technology, protocols/procedures, education, organization culture, legislation, the media, or systems theory, among others.

Awards may be given in each category in any year. However, an award need not be given in each category every year.

Founded in 1951, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 other health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities. In addition, the Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about the Joint Commission at http://www.jointcommission.org.

The NQF is a private, not-for-profit, public benefit corporation created in 1999 to improve American healthcare through endorsement of consensus-based national standards for measurement and public reporting of healthcare performance data that provide meaningful information about whether care is safe, timely, beneficial, patient-centered, equitable and efficient. Established as a unique public-private partnership, the NQF has 220 members representing all parts of the healthcare industry.