Lucian Leape, MD, Receives 1st Nightingale & Codman Patient Safety Day Award

July 15, 2009 — Lucian Leape, MD, Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health and pediatric surgeon has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Florence Nightingale and Dr. E. Codman Patient Safety Day Award. The award is being given in conjunction with this year’s 9th annual Patient Safety Day and the 10th year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s groundbreaking patient safety in America report to Congress.

Florence Nightingale was one of the first epidemiologists, statisticians, evidence-based practice and patient safety pioneers in nursing and healthcare. Dr. Codman followed with his stellar surgical career and hospital evidence-based “end results” theory and practice.

Nightingale and Codman represented the values, character and pioneering evidence-based translational practice that placed patient safety and quality outcomes above all else. In recognition of his pioneering research in patient safety and quality of care, Dr. Leape has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the award, which honors those who represent the values and furtherance of the patient safety work of Nightingale and Codman.

Like Nightingale and Codman, Dr. Leape has devoted his professional career to learning about and understanding medical error epidemiology; how they occur and what must be done to improve patient safety. Dr. Leape is known to patient safety advocates as the father of the modern patient safety movement. He was a lead investigator of the Harvard Medical Practice Study (1991) and a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality of Care in America Committee, which published the landmark 1999 “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” report that indicated up to 98,000 hospital patients die annually from medical errors. He published one of the first studies showing the application of systems theory to the prevention of medication errors. He is an outspoken advocate of full disclosure, transparency, and prompt apology when patients have been harmed by errors. Dr. Leape’s patient safety service includes being a founding member of the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Error, the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Session on Medical Error and the Lucian Leape Institute, a think tank, founded in 2007.

Patient Safety Day is held on July 25th annually. Patients, families, healthcare providers and consumer groups join together in a moment of silence and candlelight vigil at noon and 6:00 PM in memory of patients and families who have lost their life or quality of life due to medical errors – and in tribute to those who work to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for future patients. The event now draws participants from more than 40 states and numerous countries.

For additional detail on the 9th annual Patient Safety Day , please visit www.patientsafetyday.com.