The National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission honored a health system, health plan, and physician as national leaders in patient safety with the 2012 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards Wednesday.
The national award, given annually since 2002 by the two quality commissions annually, rewards individuals and organizations dedicated to improving healthcare quality and patient safety, whose efforts are also in line with the National Quality Strategy. This year's strategy emphasized improving the overall quality of care through a patient-centered approaches, population and community health initiatives, and reducing the cost of quality care.
Saul N. Weingart, MD, PhD, vice president for quality improvement and patient safety and the director of the Center for Patient Safety at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, received the patient safety award for "Individual Achievement."
Weingart is nationally accomplished in the field of patient safety, known for founding the Executive Sessions on Medical Error at Harvard Medical School as well as his research on the role of patients and family in improving patient safety. Weingart was recognized for his commitment and contributions to advancing patient safety through his leadership, publications, research, and initiatives in education, such as the development of new curriculum in patient safety and online patient safety courses.
California-based Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest health plans, was honored for innovation. It's implant registries, which use integrated data of its members in multiple medical centers across nine states to analyze statistics around patient outcomes, have established clinical best practices and were highlighted by NQF and The Joint Commission as having demonstrated "unsurpassed" benefits to patient safety and quality improvement initiatives.
Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, TX was the second recipient of the award for innovation. The 12-hospital nonprofit system in Southeast Texas was recognized for its High Reliability Journey from Board to Bedside initiative, which the system implemented across all of their hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinics and other facilities.
The initiative created an accountability structure that focused leaders and employee attention on evidence-based care, harm prevention, and high-reliability behaviors to create a cultural transformation through an executive-led performance improvement process and reward system around improving quality and reducing harm.
"The Eisenberg Awards serve as an important reminder of what healthcare should strive to be at all times—safe, effective, and focused on providing patient-centered care," said Gerald Shea, interim president and CEO of NQF in a statement. "We congratulate this year's recipients for their continued contributions in the field and for the impact their successes will continue to have on raising the standard of care in our nation."
The third category for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards is "Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level," but no recipient was named for 2012.
Chelsea Rice is an associate editor for HealthLeaders Media.
