Quality Assessment, Assurance, and Improvement
Who was Ernest A. Codman? What is the Codman Award? Why is the Codman Award the focus of this NAQ issue entitled "Quality Assessment, Assurance, and Improvement"? These are questions that may be going through your mind as you read my introduction to this edition of NAQ.
Ernest A. Codman was a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He led the founding of the American College of Surgeons. He also founded the Hospital Standardization Program, the precursor to the JCAHO. Dr Codman had a passion for performance measurement and improving patient care. He wanted the results of the data he collected to be available to the public. He felt the public and patients should be able to make informed choices about where they would go for health care.
Since 1996, the JCAHO has been celebrating individual and health care organizations successes with the Codman Award. The award provides recognition of those making outstanding contributions to quality improvement and performance measurement.
Throughout the years, nursing leaders have made many contributions to the improvement of patient care and nursing practice. Florence Nightingale was a passionate colleague who expected to leave the care and environment for patients better than she found them. The "Quality Assessment, Assurance, and Improvement" edition of NAQ is featuring many examples of the application of quality improvement principles and tools. It also has pragmatic exemplars of the effect of quality improvement principles on patient care, national standard setting, equipment management, and new construction designs. We can all be proud of how our nursing and non-nursing colleagues are passionate about doing the right thing for patients. We have some brilliant, committed, enthusiastic professionals contributing to these improvements.
One of our colleagues was recognized for her lifelong contributions to quality and performance measurement. Dr Norma Lang received the Codman Award in November 2001. Dr Lang was the first nurse to receive this award. She is a humble, quiet, influential leader in her quest for quality. She is in the good company of past award recipients Avedis Donabedian, MD; Paul B. Batalden, MD; John W. Williamson, MD; Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP; and John Eisenberg, MD, MBA.
In this issue, Dr Lang tells us the story of her quest for quality journey. She never lost sight of the work to be done. She never lost her passion for quality. She never lost faith in all of us who care for patients. She passed on her wisdom, asking all of us to "look at our practice and know our outcomes."
I hope you enjoy reading her story. Most of all, I trust you will take some of her passion and some of the lessons learned from the other authors and apply them to your own practice. Remember, patients deserve the best that we can give them!
Dr Lang, we respect all you have done in the field of quality and performance measurement. We honor you and thank you for setting a very high bar for all nurses providing care to patients.