Newswise — Critical care specialist Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM, senior vice president of Patient Safety and Quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, will receive the AACN-GE Healthcare Pioneering Spirit Award.
The award, from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and supported by GE Healthcare, will be given at the 2012 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, Orlando, Fla., May 19-24. This AACN Visionary Leadership Award recognizes significant contributions that influence high acuity and critical care nursing and relate to the association’s mission, vision and values.
Pronovost has focused his professional work on finding ways to make hospitals and healthcare safer for patients through methods that are scientifically rigorous, while feasible at the bedside.
He is best known for developing a simple five-item checklist of basic steps, such as hand washing and proper skin preparation, that has helped physicians and nurses dramatically reduce many kinds of healthcare-associated infections. When the Michigan Keystone ICU Project implemented his checklist protocols, these five steps were associated with a 66 percent reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections throughout the state, saving more than 1,500 lives and $200 million in the first 18 months alone.
A practicing anesthesiologist and critical care physician, Pronovost holds faculty appointments in Johns Hopkins University’s medical, public health and nursing schools. He serves as senior vice president of Patient Safety and Quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine, the university’s health system. He is also medical director for Johns Hopkins’ Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care and director of the Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group.
Pronovost has written extensively on patient safety, ICU care, quality healthcare, evidence-based medicine and the measurement and evaluation of safety efforts, chronicling his work in the 2010 book “Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out.” He is a frequent speaker on quality and safety leadership and implementation of large-scale change. He chairs the ICU Advisory Panel for Quality Measures of The Joint Commission, the ICU Physician Staffing Committee for the Leapfrog Group, and serves on the Quality Measures Work Group of the National Quality Forum. He advises the World Health Organization’s World Alliance for Patient Safety and is leading WHO efforts to improve patient safety measurement, evaluation and leadership capacity.
He has received national and international recognition for his research, including the 2004 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Research Award from The Joint Commission, a 2008 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and selection by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2008. In 2011, Pronovost was recognized for his outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service with election to membership in the Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
About the AACN-GE Healthcare Pioneering Spirit Award: The annual AACN-GE Healthcare Pioneering Spirit Award recognizes significant contributions that influence high acuity and critical care nursing regionally and nationally and relate to AACN’s mission, vision and values. Recipients of this Visionary Leadership Award come from business, academia and healthcare and receive a plaque and $750 honorarium at the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition. Other Visionary Leadership Awards, AACN’s highest honor, include AACN’s Lifetime Member Award, Honorary Member Award and the Marguerite Rodgers Kinney Award for a Distinguished Career.
About the National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition: Established in 1974, AACN’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition (NTI) represents the world’s largest educational conference and trade show for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families. Bedside nurses, nurse educators, nurse managers, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners attend NTI.
About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: Founded in 1969 and based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. AACN joins together the interests of more than 500,000 acute and critical care nurses and claims more than 240 chapters worldwide. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. www.aacn.org; facebook.com/aacnface; twitter.com/aacnme
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