Parkland Health recognized as a 2024 Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award recipient by The Joint Commission, National Quality Forum
Parkland Health has been recognized with the prestigious John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality category. The Eisenberg Awards, named in honor of the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, a leading advocate for healthcare quality improvement, recognize major achievements by individuals and organizations that are improving patient safety and healthcare quality in innovative and measurable ways.
Parkland has been honored for developing a comprehensive program for identifying and preventing missed opportunities for diagnosis. Initially focused on tracking delayed imaging findings, the program evolved to manage six high-risk diagnostic scenarios through a centralized Safety Net Surveillance team within the Digital Health Center. These innovations included implementing a population health management tool, bilingual staff trained in motivational interviewing, the integration of social workers, and ultimately developing an AI language model that achieved 97.2% accuracy in identifying delayed imaging findings in collaboration with the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation. Parkland’s efforts delivered significant improvements for its patients, including:
- Achieving completed recommended follow-up studies in 91% of patients with abnormal imaging studies, with 4.3% of completed cases being found to have cancer, and 3% to have a medical issue requiring surgical intervention. These follow-ups have resulted in potentially life-saving findings that may have otherwise been delayed or missed.
- A greater than 54% improvement in obtaining follow-up specialty care for patients with new cancer diagnoses.
- Reducing delays in overdue imaging surveillance findings decreased from 17% to 9%.
- Improving follow-up rates for abnormal mammograms from 83% to 87%
- Closing gaps for patients with abnormal tumor marker studies by 27%.>
"I am immensely proud of our Digital Health Center team's achievement in establishing this program to combat one of healthcare's most prevalent and life-threatening challenges,” said Brett Moran, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Health Officer at Parkland. “Their work is making a direct impact on patient survival each day. Parkland is deeply honored to receive recognition from The Joint Commission and the Eisenberg Award selection panel."
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.
The 2024 winners join more than two decades of influential healthcare organizations and leaders that have made major strides to improve patient care worthy of an Eisenberg Award. To learn more about the achievements and strategies of each awardee and the history of the program, visit The Joint Commission and NQF websites.
Back