The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) are now accepting applications for the 2022 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards. The annual awards program recognizes major achievements by individuals and organizations to improve patient safety and healthcare quality. The deadline to apply is September 14.

Awards are presented in three categories:

  • Individual Achievement
  • National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality
  • Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality

The individual award is intended for nominees who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and scholarship in patient safety and healthcare quality through a substantive body of work. 

Initiatives or projects eligible for the national and local level awards will have involved successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer or that advocate on the patient’s behalf. These innovative efforts may address new technologies, protocols, procedures, education, organizational culture, legislation, the media, patient advocacy, systems theory, or another area. 

Organizations applying must provide at minimum one year of data supporting the improvement made by the featured initiative.

The 2021 recipients of this award were Prime Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, and Dr. Hardeep Singh, chief of the Health Policy, Quality & Informatics Program in the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

This award program was launched two decades ago in honor of the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). An impassioned advocate for healthcare quality improvement, Dr. Eisenberg was a founding member of NQF’s board of directors.

Eisenberg award winners will be recognized in person during an award ceremony at NQF’s annual conference in February 2023.