Michael R. Cohen, founder and president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and a member of the Nursing2009 advisory board, recently received the National Quality Forum and Joint Commission's 2008 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award. Mike, who has contributed this column to Nursing for more than 30 years, was recognized for individual achievement and his lifelong commitment to promoting safe medication use and a safe medication delivery system, through his founding of ISMP and cofounding of the Medication Errors Reporting Program.
In presenting the award, the Joint Commission stated that Mike "has routinely challenged legislators and regulators, practitioners, professional organizations, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to recognize their responsibility to eliminate preventable morbidity and mortality due to medication errors.[horizontal ellipsis] He has championed improvements in drug naming, labeling, packaging, delivery systems, and regulation and has influenced changes to hundreds of drug products and the removal of others."
Nursing2009 congratulates Mike Cohen for his dedication to medication safety.