Joint Commission, NFQ award safety and quality achievers
The winners of the 2011 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards, chosen annually by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Joint Commission, include a physician, a hospital, a multi-facility healthcare system and a professional association.

The honorees are:
  • Individual achievement: Kenneth I. Shine, MD, executive vice chancellor for health affairs, University of Texas Medical System, Galveston. A cardiologist and physiologist, Shine is being recognized “for his multiple leadership roles that have helped to improve quality and safety in health care nationwide,” according to the Joint Commission. Shine is a former president of the Institute of Medicine and the founding director of RAND's Center for Domestic and International Health Security.
  • Innovation in patient safety and quality at the national level: Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM). The Eisenberg award-selection panel picked the Philadelphia-based SHM for its “mentored implementation” program. This has placed quality improvement mentors in more than 300 U.S. and Canadian hospitals, most focusing on care transitions, glycemic control and venous thromboembolism prevention.
  • Innovation in patient safety and quality at the local level: New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, and Henry Ford Health System, Detroit. The awards committee is recognizing New York-Presbyterian for its Housestaff Quality Council, which has cut the use of paper lab orders by more than 70 percent in favor of electronic orders and achieved greater than 90 percent compliance with medication reconciliation. Henry Ford stood out for the continuing success of its No Harm Campaign, launched in 2008. From April of that year through June of 2011, the system-wide effort brought about a 26 percent reduction in harm events and 12 percent reduction in mortality.

The awards are to be presented April 5 at NQF’s annual conference, at which Jerod M. Loeb, PhD, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Loeb, the Joint Commission’s executive vice president of healthcare quality evaluation, won the honor for his leadership in “identifying, evaluating and implementing performance measures across the wide variety of Joint Commission accreditation and certification programs.”

The awards program is named for the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, a renowned patient safety advocate who died at 55 in 2002 after having co-founded NQF and serving as administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The Joint Commission is headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. NQF is based in Washington, D.C.
Dave Pearson

Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.

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