The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) have named the recipients of the 2018 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. As champions of quality improvement initiatives to provide safe, high-quality care, The Joint Commission and NQF will honor the recipients this week during an awards ceremony at NQF’s 2019 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Eisenberg Awards bring together the quality community to recognize initiatives that are consistent with the aims of the National Quality Strategy: better care, healthy people and communities, and smarter spending.

The honorees are presented in three categories to celebrate the best examples of individual, local, and national initiatives. This year’s honorees include:

  • Individual Achievement: Brent C. James, MD, MStat, clinical professor, department of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, California, and senior advisor, Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City
  • Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Chicago
  • Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level: BJC HealthCare, St. Louis

BJC HealthCare, specifically, is recognized for its system-wide approach improving patient safety through reductions in preventable harm. In 2008, the 15-hospital health system launched a five-year, system-wide initiative to reduce preventable harm in a wide variety of categories, including falls with serious injury, pressure ulcers, adverse drug events, healthcare-associated infections, and venous thromboembolism. Through implementing practical interventions for categories of harm, the health system had sustained success improving outcomes, with a 75% reduction in preventable harm over 10 years.

“These awards honor the hard work it takes to improve quality and safety. Such leadership takes vision, passion, and a commitment to improving care for every person,” says Shantanu Agrawal, president and CEO, NQF. “These honorees extend the Eisenberg legacy by showing us what is possible and creating new expectations for high quality care.”

David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, executive vice president, Division of Health Care Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission, also spoke out about the awards, commenting: “We are pleased to recognize the honorees for their innovative approaches to improve patient safety and quality of care. They have demonstrated that quality improvement efforts can be achieved at the individual, national, and local levels. Quality improvement opportunities are vast as we continue to aim toward the goal of achieving zero harm in healthcare.”