VA Palo Alto Doctors Receive Prestigious John M. Eisenberg Award

Press release from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System:

July 21, 2021

Two doctors at VA Palo Alto Health Care System were recognized with the prestigious 2020 Eisenberg Awards.

Two doctors at VA Palo Alto Health Care System were recognized by The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum (NQF) with 2020 Eisenberg Awards, a prestigious program aimed at recognizing the best examples of individual, local, and national efforts to improve patient safety and health care quality. The doctors are each being recognized for separate categories, bringing home two of the three awards given out by the program each year.

Dr. David Gaba is a staff anesthesiologist and director of the Patient Simulation Center of Innovation at VA Palo Alto Health Care System, who received the Individual Achievement award for his career as an educator, researcher, scholar, physician, and institutional leader.

“I’m honored and humble to receive this award and to be placed alongside many other recipients who I consider to be mentors and inspirations. I surely could not have achieved the accomplishments for which I am receiving the award without such forward-thinking support at VA Palo Alto,” said Dr. Gaba.

Dr. Gaba’s innovations have led the field in:

• Invention, use, and commercialization of modern mannequin-based simulation
• Adaptation of Crew Resource Management (CRM) from aviation to use within anesthesiology was adapted by Dr. Gaba’s group in the late 1980s as part of simulation-based training
• Creation and promulgation of multi-event “cognitive aids” for real-time use in time-critical, life-threatening situations

Dr. Elizabeth M. Oliva, Ph.D., is the coordinator of the National Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program that launched VA’s Rapid Naloxone Initiative in 2018. The initiative was recognized for the National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality award.

“Naloxone is used to reverse opioid overdose, and its timely administration during an overdose saves lives,” said Dr. Oliva. “VA is at the forefront of this fight, changing lives every day through the Rapid Naloxone Initiative, the Opioid Safety Initiative, Substance Use Disorder Treatment, and our Whole Health approach to improving overall well-being.”

This concerted approach has equipped 291,841 VA patients, 3,552 VA police officers, and 1,095 AED cabinets with naloxone. VA’s efforts have resulted in more than 1,950 opioid overdose reversals, with 136 additional opioid overdose reversals facilitated by VA police and 10 with AED cabinet naloxone.

The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002, honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), an impassioned advocate for health care quality improvement.

The recipients received their awards during a virtual presentation at the NQF annual conference in July 2021.The achievements of each honoree will be featured in a special issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety later this summer.

This press release was produced by the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. The views expressed here are the author’s own.