John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award Recipients Announced
Washington, DC—The National Quality Forum (NQF) and The Joint Commission today announced the 2015 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. The awards were presented at NQF’s Annual Conference in Washington, DC.
The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002 by NQF and The Joint Commission, honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Dr. Eisenberg was also a member of the founding board of directors of NQF. In his roles both as AHRQ administrator and chair of the federal government’s Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force, he was a passionate advocate for patient safety and healthcare quality, and personally led AHRQ’s grant program to support patient safety research.
The honorees for individual, national, and local recognition represent numerous achievements in the field of patient safety and quality. They are:
Individual Achievement – Pascale Carayon, PhD, Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor in Total Quality, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Pascale Carayon was honored for her passion and far-reaching impact on patient care. She has advanced the field of patient safety and quality using human factors engineering (HFE) concepts and methods, and the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model that grew out of HFE. Through her vision, research, and work, Carayon has significantly enhanced the body of knowledge underlying innovative approaches to patient safety and improved patient safety efforts. She has also mentored new leaders in this arena both nationally and internationally.
Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level – Premier, Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina
Premier’s national quality improvement initiative, called QUEST® (Quality, Efficiency, Safety and Transparency), was established in 2008 to help health systems reliably deliver the most efficient, effective, and caring experience for every patient, every single time. QUEST enabled approximately 350 volunteer health systems to transparently share data and define a common framework with consistent measures of top performance—something that has never existed in healthcare. Since inception, QUEST participants have prevented more than 176,000 deaths and reduced healthcare spending by more than $15 billion. These results prove that transparent peer-to-peer collaboration and data sharing, coupled with a holistic performance improvement framework to facilitate change, has a significant impact on provider outcomes.
Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level – Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, was honored for its hospital-wide quality transformation to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). It used rigorous quality improvement methods to identify strategies to reduce CAUTIs that were above the national average. Through a multidisciplinary team approach, engagement of frontline staff, identification of a bundle of interventions, development of a toolkit and an innovative method of diffusion using a multimedia approach with a large, complex organization, Mayo achieved a 70 percent reduction in CAUTIs hospital-wide.
“The Eisenberg Award winners represent some of the most innovative and exceptional programs in the nation for improving patient safety and healthcare quality, and this year’s recipients meet those very high standards,” said Helen Darling, MA, interim president and CEO, NQF. “We can only improve patient safety if we can measure and report on our efforts—and no one knows this better than the Eisenberg award winners. Their achievements inspire efforts to improve patient safety and healthcare quality across all settings of care and serve as inspiration to all of us.”
“We are pleased to honor Pascale Carayon for devoting her entire career to improving healthcare safety, as well as the contributions of all those who were a part of Mayo Clinic’s efforts to reduce CAUTI, and the Premier collaborative. All of them have made a great impact on the care of patients and should be commended,” said Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president and CEO, The Joint Commission. “They have all worked to find solutions to some tough issues in healthcare that have defied easy fixes. Through their use of innovative quality improvement approaches, they are making a difference in the lives of patients.”
The achievements of each of the award recipients will be highlighted on NQF’s website later this spring, and they will be featured in the June 2016 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
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The National Quality Forum
The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at www.qualityforum.org.
The Joint Commission
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve healthcare for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating healthcare organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.
