Leading Hospitalists Named Recipients Of The 2004 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety And Quality Award

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert M. Wachter, M.D., past present of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), and Kaveh G. Shojania, M.D., a practicing hospitalist, now at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Health Research Institute, have been named recipients of the prestigious John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for 2004 in the category of "Innovations in Patient Safety at a National Level." The award is presented jointly by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

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Drs. Wachter and Shojania were honored for the creation of a highly successful case-based approach to educating practitioners, provider organizations, policy makers and patients about patient safety issues through their writings in professional literature, the Web-based patient safety journal AHRQ WebM&M, and their bestselling and critically acclaimed book, "Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes."

"We applaud these outstanding winners for their innovative thinking and their passion for improving patient safety," said Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, Joint Commission. "Their achievements have measurably advanced patient safety in the United States." Echoing these sentiments was NQF President and CEO Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., who said that the award recipients have "demonstrated their commitment to improving the quality and safety of healthcare by their actions. Their example is a source of inspiration for all of us."

Dr. Wachter is professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He serves as associate chairman of UCSF's Department of Medicine and chief of the medical service at UCSF Medical Center where he directs UCSF's 17-person hospitalist program, the oldest and most successful academic hospitalist program in the United States.

Dr. Shojania is assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, having recently relocated from UCSF. In 2002 he was presented with SHM's Young Investigator Award in recognition of his outstanding achievement and promise as a young researcher in hospital medicine. As the nation's first ever hospitalist fellow at UCSF, Dr. Shojania was instrumental in the development of "Quality Grand Rounds," a series of case-based conferences and companion manuscripts on patient safety and medical errors, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We are extremely proud of these two deserving individuals and are thrilled that their dedication towards improving patient safety has been recognized with such a prestigious honor," said Larry Wellikson, M.D., executive director of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Eisenberg awardees in other categories in 2004 include Dr. Lucian Leape of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Peter Pronovost of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Major Danny Jaghab of Brooke Army Medical Center of San Antonio, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

SHM is the premier medical society dedicated to representing hospitalists -- physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Hospital doctors' activities include: patient care, research, teaching and leadership related to hospital care. The society was established in 1997 specifically to support and enhance the practice of hospital doctors and the patients they serve. Currently there are approximately 10,000 hospitalists nationwide. As the nation's fastest-growing medical specialty, this number is projected to grow fourfold by the end of the decade. Further information may be obtained at http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/.

CONTACT: Ross Goldberg, +1-818-597-8453, for Society of HospitalMedicine