(OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – November 12, 2008) The Joint Commission today recognized the late Shukri F. Khuri, M.D., for his leadership role in using performance measures to improve health care quality and safety by naming him the recipient of the 2008 Ernest Amory Codman Award in the individual category.
At the time of his death on September 26, 2008, Dr. Khuri’s work in the field of surgical quality improvement and risk-adjusted surgical outcomes spanned more than 20 years. Dr. Khuri achieved national and international prominence in the fields of cardiac pathophysiology, cardiac surgery, medical informatics, quality improvement, and health policy research.
“The 2008 Codman Award recipients exemplify how performance measurement improves the quality and safety of health care,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission. “Their achievements demonstrate the progress that can be made when process and outcomes measures are combined into meaningful practices that result in better patient care.”
Named for the physician regarded in health care as the “father of outcomes measurement,” the Ernest Amory Codman Award showcases the effective use of performance measurement by health care organizations to improve the quality and safety of health care. The Joint Commission also recognizes an individual who has played a significant leadership role in promoting the use of performance measures to improve health care services, and for major contributions to the development and testing of performance measures and the science and art of quality improvement. A panel of national experts in quality measurement and improvement selected the five recipients of the 2008 Awards.
For 16 years, Dr. Khuri oversaw the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Recognized today as the model for continuous improvement in surgery, NSQIP is the first national, validated, outcome-based, risk-adjusted and peer-controlled program for the measurement and enhancement of the quality of surgical care. Since the inception of NSQIP, 30-day postoperative mortality and morbidity have dropped by 47 percent and 43 percent, respectively. Dr. Khuri was also instrumental in implementing NSQIP in the private sector through collaboration with the American College of Surgeons. The ACS created the ACS-NSQIP and Dr. Khuri served on the advisory and steering committees.
“We are pleased that The Joint Commission has acknowledged Dr. Khuri, and we were pleased to nominate him,” says Thomas R. Russell, M.D., F.A.C.S., Executive Director, American College of Surgeons. “It is most fitting that Dr. Khuri receive this award for doing work that Dr. Codman started. The American College of Surgeons will continue to support the work that Dr. Khuri initiated and that is now being implemented in the private sector.”
Among his many notable accomplishments, in 1978 Dr. Khuri established the first automated data management system in a surgical intensive care unit in the Northeast and chaired the VA Surgery Specific Interest Users Group, which developed the first clinical module in the VA’s Decentralized Hospital Computer Plan. Today, the electronic patient record in the VA is the most advanced and comprehensive electronic medical record system in the world. Dr. Khuri supplemented his efforts to automate medical records in the VA by collaborating with private sector enterprises including LiveData Corporation, which is designing the electronic infrastructure for the operating room of the future.
Dr. Khuri was a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Surgical Association where he served as vice president in 2005-2006, and authored more than 380 peer-reviewed publications. His awards include the Frank Brown Berry Prize, which singles out an outstanding professional in the U.S. federal health system; The American University of Beirut’s Stephen Penrose Award; the Brigham and Women’s Robert Matson Award; the American Heart Association’s Paul Dudley White Award; the Nicholas G. Berans Veterans Association’s Distinguished Service Award; the 2006 Philip Crosby Award for Quality; and the 2006 American Heart Association Mentorship Award in Surgery.
The Codman Awards will be formally presented on November 19 during The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources Annual Conference on Quality and Safety in Chicago. Additional award recipients in the following categories are:
- Hospital: Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, North Carolina; Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; and Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, California.
- Multiple organization: Novant Health, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.