The Joint Fee and Nationwide High quality Discussion board (NQF) have introduced the recipients of the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Affected person Protection and High quality Awards, together with a Veterans Well being Management surgical treatment initiative that lowered six-month mortality for at-risk sufferers.

The Eisenberg Awards acknowledge main achievements by way of folks and organizations that stepped forward affected person protection and healthcare high quality. Introduced in 2002, the awards honor the past due John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A., former administrator of the Company for Healthcare Analysis and High quality (AHRQ) and a founding member of NQF’s board of administrators.



Every 12 months, awards are offered for national-level innovation, local-level innovation and person fulfillment. The 2023 awardees are:
• Nationwide Degree Innovation in Affected person Protection and High quality: The Surgical Pause – Veterans Well being Management
• Native Degree Innovation in Affected person Protection and High quality: Making a Tradition of High quality for Cardiovascular Care in Michigan – BMC2
• Particular person Fulfillment: Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., Rice College

“Every 12 months, the Eisenberg Awards exhibit cutting edge healthcare high quality and affected person protection efforts that experience had an important demonstrable have an effect on on bettering affected person results and lowering avoidable healthcare harms,” stated Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D., president and leader govt officer of NQF, in a observation. “The paintings of this 12 months’s person and institutional recipients embodies the legacy of Dr. Eisenberg, who was once a visionary pioneer and alter maker dedicated to translating analysis into real-world supply machine enhancements that be certain that secure, dependable, and efficient deal with each affected person in each environment. The Joint Fee and NQF are proud to acknowledge those remarkable innovators as we proceed to honor Dr. Eisenberg’s enduring contributions to our box.”

Veterans Well being Management (VHA) is known for its initiative the Surgical Pause, which lowered six-month mortality of sufferers made up our minds to be “frail” from 25 % to eight % at 3 VA clinical facilities. Beneath the initiative, suppliers carried out regimen frailty screening with the Possibility Research Index to spot sufferers on the very best menace of postoperative headaches, lack of independence, and mortality. For sufferers discovered to be frail, a short lived “pause” allows additional analysis. For sufferers who pursue surgical treatment, multidisciplinary care plans are carried out to scale back frailty-associated dangers sooner than surgical treatment, transferring the paradigm and energy to strengthening the frail affected person and mitigating possible headaches sooner than they occur. Additional research of greater than 50,000 sufferers discovered that one-year mortality declined by way of 4.2 %. On account of this luck, the Surgical Pause has been replicated throughout greater than 50 clinical facilities throughout VA and the personal sector.

BMC2 (Blue Move Blue Defend of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium) is a statewide high quality growth collaborative that develops and administers a portfolio of high quality growth interventions for sufferers who go through percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), vascular surgeries, and transcatheter valve procedures in Michigan. On account of the initiative Making a Tradition of High quality for Cardiovascular Care in Michigan, BMC2 player websites:
• Progressed documentation of radiation use from 73.1 % in 2019 to 85.5 % in 2021. BMC2 websites are outperforming nationwide charges, which have been 57.5 % in 2019 and 74.3 % in 2021.
• Completed an general 43 % lower in circumstances with high-dose radiation publicity (2.8 % in 2018 to at least one.2 % in 2021) for loads of sufferers and catheterization laboratory team of workers individuals.
• Lowered opioid tablet prescribing. Information confirmed growth within the charge of sufferers with a prescription for fewer than 10 opioid capsules, expanding from 62 % in 2018 to 91 % in 2021.

NQF stated that Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., of Rice College, is known for his frame of labor throughout 40 years designing, creating, and comparing evidence-based rules and equipment to assist healthcare organizations create a tradition of teamwork and protection. Maximum notable is his building of TeamSTEPPS (Workforce Methods & Equipment to Fortify Efficiency & Affected person Protection), a coordination and teamwork framework that has been followed by way of 70 % of U.S. hospitals to assist cut back clinical mistakes.

Salas is a prolific pupil and has revealed greater than 420 magazine articles in top-tier journals and two books, edited 36 books and 247 e book chapters, and has bestowed loads of displays. His paintings has been cited greater than 132,000 instances.

“Congratulations to Veterans Well being Management, BMC2, and Eduardo Salas, for his or her super achievements worthy of the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Affected person Protection and High quality Awards,” stated Jonathan B. Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of The Joint Fee endeavor, in a observation. “We envision a long term the place all folks all the time revel in the most secure, very best high quality healthcare throughout all settings. The accomplishments by way of the 2023 Eisenberg awardees function examples of inspirational, but replicable efforts enabling healthcare organizations to force genuine enhancements to affected person protection and high quality.”

In August 2023 The Joint Fee and NQF introduced a strategic association, with NQF becoming a member of the Joint Fee endeavor whilst keeping up its independence in convening and creating consensus-based measures, implementation steering, and practices that receive advantages all stakeholders.