Each year, the National Quality Forum (NQF) and The Joint Commission recognize the best examples of individual, local, and national efforts to improve patient safety and healthcare quality through the prestigious Eisenberg Awards. These awards bring the quality community together to honor groundbreaking initiatives that are consistent with the aims of the National Quality Strategy: better care, healthy people and communities, and smarter spending.

Launched in 2002, the awards honor the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. An impassioned advocate for healthcare quality improvement, Dr. Eisenberg was a founding member of NQF’s board of directors.

Awards are presented in three categories:

Individual Achievement – Individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and scholarship in patient safety and health care quality through a substantive lifetime body of work that recognizes an individual’s lifetime achievement.

National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality – The focus of the project or initiative extends beyond local areas to being implemented across the country to achieve national impact. Original projects or initiatives involving successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer, or that advocate on the patient’s behalf. These innovative projects or initiatives may address new technologies, protocols and procedures, education, organization culture, legislation, the media, patient advocacy, systems theory, etc.

Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality – The project or initiative focuses on effecting impact at the local community, organization or regional level (e.g., statewide). Original projects or initiatives involving successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer, or that advocate on the patient’s behalf. These innovative projects or initiatives may address new technologies, protocols and procedures, education, organization culture, legislation, the media, patient advocacy, and systems theory, among other areas.

Past award winners have implemented highly effective programs to advance quality and patient safety, including initiatives to improve care coordination and substantially reduce hospital readmission rates, achieve significant decreases in hospital-acquired infections, and create robust cultures and systems of safety.

Congratulations to the 2023 award winners:

• Individual Achievement Awardee: Eduardo Salas, PhD, Rice University
• National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality: The Surgical Pause – Veterans Health Administration
• Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality: Creating a Culture of Quality for Cardiovascular Care in Michigan – BMC2