SUBSCRIBE
to the
PSQH e-Newsletter

Oakbrook Terrace, IL, and Washington, DC, February 8, 2008 — The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) are accepting applications for the 2008 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards, which recognize individuals and health care organizations that are making significant contributions in improving the safety and quality of patient care.Ý

Nomination forms for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards are available at www.jointcommission.org and www.qualityforum.org. The deadline for nominations is April 14, 2008.

The awards honor the memory of Dr. Eisenberg, a nationally recognized leader in health care quality improvement who advocated for health care — based on a strong foundation of research — that meets the needs and perspectives of patients. Dr. Eisenberg, who died in 2002, spearheaded national efforts to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety as director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards are presented each year, in up to four categories, including individual achievement, research, and innovation in patient safety and quality at both the national and local level. The accomplishments of award nominees must be focused on either improving patient safety or the quality of health care, leadership in advancing methods for measuring and reporting health care quality, expanding the public's capacity to evaluate the quality and safety of health care, and promoting health care choices based on information about safety and quality.Ý

Awards are not necessarily given in each category every year and more than one award could be presented in a given category. An award panel of outside experts in patient safety and health care quality select the recipients. The December 2008 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety will feature articles describing the achievements of the award recipients.

2007 recipients are:

Individual Achievement
Flaura Koplin Winston, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Pa.

Darrell A. Campbell, Jr., M.D., University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Research Achievement
Eric Thomas, M.D., M.P.H., The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a National Level
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Local Level
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, Ill.

Completed nomination forms may be mailed to the attention of Linda Hanold, director, Department of Quality Measurement and Health Informatics, The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., 60181. The 2008 awards will be presented at the NQF National Policy Conference on Quality October 15-16, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

About The Joint Commission
Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations. The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,800 other health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities. In addition, The Joint Commission provides certification of disease-specific care programs, primary stroke centers, and health care staffing services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. Learn more about The Joint Commission at www.jointcommission.org.

About the National Quality Forum
The NQF is a private, not-for-profit public benefit corporation whose mission is to improve the quality of American healthcare by: setting national priorities and goals for performance improvement, endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance, and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. The NQF represents all aspects of the healthcare industry. Dr. Eisenberg was one of the key architects in the establishment of the NQF and served on its Board of Directors.