Dr. John Eisenberg remembered for patient safety initiatives

The head of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality passes away, but colleagues say his efforts will live on.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. April 8, 2002.

After dedicating the last years of his life to improving patient safety, John M. Eisenberg, MD, died last month during Patient Safety Awareness Week.

Now the activist who originated the event would like to use it to perpetuate Dr. Eisenberg's memory.

"We want to honor him from now on," said Ilene Corina, president of the patient-safety consumer group PULSE of New York, who started the event in memory of her son who died after having a tonsillectomy. "I believe [Dr. Eisenberg] was a true hero, and I would like consumers, patients and people who have lived through the death of a loved one or who were injured by medical errors to know that there are people like him."

Dr. Eisenberg, 55, died March 10 in his Potomac, Md., home after a year-long battle with a brain tumor.

He had served as the director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since 1997, and spearheaded the government's response to the 1999 Institute of Medicine report that calculated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year as a result of medical errors.

"John dedicated himself to ensuring that patients have the highest quality, safest health care possible," said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson. "Largely through his efforts, improving patient safety and health care quality are top national priorities."

AMA President-elect Yank D. Coble Jr., MD, credits Dr. Eisenberg with getting the health care community to look at how medical errors occur within a system and steering it away from the "shame and blame" reaction of the past. [...]