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Joint Commission, National Quality Forum Now Accepting Applicants for the 2009 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 15:22 CST

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. and WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) are accepting applications for the 2009 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.

Application forms for the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards are available at www.jointcommission.org and www.qualityforum.org. The deadline for submissions is April 20, 2009.

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 and project-related achievements in research and innovation in patient safety and quality at both the national and local level. Beginning in 2009, however, nominations will be accepted in the Individual Achievement Category for both domestic and international nominees. In addition, a new category has been added for International Patient Safety and Quality related initiatives.

The accomplishments of award nominees must be focused on one or more of the following: 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.

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. For more information about the award and to read about past recipients, go to http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/EisenbergAward/.

Completed nomination forms may be mailed to the attention of Linda Hanold, director, Department of Quality Measurement and Research, The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., 60181. The 2009 awards will be presented at NQF's National Policy Conference October 14-16 in National Harbor, Maryland.

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 more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 8,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and more than 6,200 other health care organizations that provide long term care, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. In addition, The Joint Commission also provides certification of more than 600 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.

The mission of the National Quality Forum 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. NQF, a non-profit organization (qualityforum.org) with diverse stakeholders across the public and private health sectors, was established in 1999 and is based in Washington, DC.

SOURCE The Joint Commission

Source: PR Newswire

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