OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., July 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The July 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety details the achievements of this year’s John M. Eisenberg Award recipients, including a physician who is passionate about improving communication and transparency between patients and their health care providers, a network of children’s hospitals that saved more than 9,000 children from harm, and a large health system that achieved a decrease in hospital-acquired patient harms of more than 60 percent.

The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) annually present the national Eisenberg Awards to recognize individuals and organizations that have achieved groundbreaking initiatives that are consistent with the aims of the National Quality Strategy : better care, healthy people and communities, and smarter spending.

The Eisenberg Award honorees featured in the Journal are as follows:

  • Individual Achievement : Thomas H. Gallagher, MD, professor and associate chair, Department of Medicine, and professor, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle.
  • Innovation of Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level : Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS), a network of more than 130 children’s hospitals in the United States and Canada.
  • Innovation of Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level : LifePoint Health’s National Quality Program, Brentwood, Tennessee.

“ An Interview with Thomas H. Gallagher ” features a Q&A between Dr. Gallagher and Eric Thomas, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, University of Texas Houston Medical School, and director, UT Houston-Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety. The interview focuses on Dr. Gallagher’s  work in exploring the experience of patients who have been harmed by medical errors, as well as how the concept of communication and resolution programs has evolved over the years to describe comprehensive, principled and systematic strategies for preventing and responding to adverse events.

In the article, “ We Will Not Compete on Safety: How Children’s Hospitals Have Come Together to Hasten Harm Reduction ,” Anne Lyren, MD, MSc, clinical director, SPS, and associate professor of pediatrics and bioethics, Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Cleveland, and co-authors describe how the SPS Network—a network of more than 130 children’s hospitals—is working to eliminate patient and employee/staff harm across all children’s hospitals. In 2017, the SPS Network reported a 9 to 71 percent reduction in eight harm conditions by an initial cohort of 33 hospitals. The authors estimate that more than 9,000 children have been spared harm since the launch of the network, with an estimated $148.5 million in health care spending avoided.

Karen Frush, MD, BSN, CPPS, chief quality officer, Duke Quality Network, Durham, North Carolina, and vice president, Quality, LifePoint Health, and co-authors detail their work to improve safety culture in community hospitals across the United States in the article, “ National Quality Program Achieves Improvement in Safety Culture and Reduction in Preventable Harms in Community Hospitals .” Duke University Health System and LifePoint Health collaborated to create a joint venture, Duke LifePoint Healthcare. Through this innovative partnership, a structured approach to quality was developed and implemented in Duke LifePoint hospitals and later refined and spread to all LifePoint hospitals through the LifePoint National Quality Program. This program has led to significant improvements, including a reduction in aggregate harm of more than 60 percent.

The awards program, launched in 2002, honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). An impassioned advocate for health care quality improvement, Dr. Eisenberg was a member of NQF’s founding board of directors, chaired the federal government’s Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force and personally led AHRQ’s grant program to support patient safety research.

The Eisenberg Awards were presented at NQF’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 2018.  

Also featured in the July 2018 issue:

For more information, visit The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety website .  

Note for editors The article is “An Interview with Thomas H. Gallagher” conducted by Eric Thomas, MD, MPH. The article appears in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety , volume 44, number 7 (July 2018), published by Elsevier.

The article is “We Will Not Compete on Safety: How Children’s Hospitals Have Come Together to Hasten Harm Reduction” by Anne Lyren, MD, MSc; Maitreya Coffey, MD; Melissa Shepherd, BA; Nicholas Lashutka, BA; Stephen Muething, MD; and the SPS Leadership Group. The article appears in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety , volume 44, number 7 (July 2018), published by Elsevier.

The article is “National Quality Program Achieves Improvements in Safety Culture and Reduction in Preventable Harms in Community Hospitals,” by Karen Frush, MD, BSN, CPPS; Cynthia Chamness, RN, BSN, CPPS; Barbara Olson, RN-GA, MS, CPPS;  Sandi Hyde, MSPS; Cynthia Nordlund, RN, MSN, CPPS; Harry Phillips, MD; and Russell Holman, MD. The article appears in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety , volume 44, number 7 (July 2018), published by Elsevier.

The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety (JQPS) is a peer-reviewed journal providing health care professionals with innovative thinking, strategies and practices in improving quality and safety in health care. JQPS is the official journal of The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources, Inc. Original case studies, program or project reports, reports of new methodologies or the new application of methodologies, research studies, and commentaries on issues and practices are all considered.

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Media Contact: Katie Looze Bronk Corporate Communications (630) 792-5175 kbronk@jointcommission.org

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