Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award Recipients Honored

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The winners of this year’s John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards were honored this week at the National Quality Forum’s 2018 annual conference in Washington, D.C. Launched in 2002, the patient safety awards program has highlighted achievement in patient safety and quality in the name of the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administration of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The winners include:

  • 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. Gallagher was cited for his work in improving transparency in disclosing injury to patients who were harmed during medical treatment. He created and directed the Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement, which has rolled out communication and resolution programs at healthcare organizations throughout the U.S.
  • Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level: Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety, a network of more than 130 children’s hospitals in North America. The network is credited with protecting nearly 10,000 children from harm while hospitalized. Network members share data about 11 types of patient harm including surgical site infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, adverse drug events, and falls. The members hold virtual learning events annually and host two conferences each year.
  • Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level: LifePoint Health’s National Quality Program, Brentwood, Tenn. LifePoint was honored for its system-wide learning laboratory that uses a data-driven program to improve the culture of safety in its hospitals and reduce hospital-associated patient harm in more than 70 facilities in 22 states. Aggregate patient harm has decreased 62%; this includes 12 months of zero central-line infections at 73% of LifePoint’s hospitals from January to December 2017. From 2010 to 2017, hospital-acquired infections dropped by 78% for urinary tract infections, 58% for sepsis infection, and 73% for pneumonia.