Children’s Hospital Association’s Sepsis Collaborative Wins Eisenberg Award

A Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) sepsis project has won the 2025 Eisenberg Award for National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality from the Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum.

CHA is a membership organization for over 200 children’s hospitals, health systems, and related organizations. The Eisenberg Awards, named in honor of the late John M. Eisenberg, M.D., M.B.A., former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and an advocate for healthcare quality improvement, recognize major achievements by individuals and organizations that are improving patient safety and healthcare quality in innovative and measurable ways.

CHA won the award for the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) Collaborative, a seven-year, 66-hospital initiative that improved sepsis recognition and compliance from 57% to 76.5%, reduced mortality, and advanced equity in care for children nationwide. IPSO created the largest pediatric sepsis dataset to date, with more than 100,000 episodes analyzed. The work generated evidence-based care bundles that help clinicians recognize sepsis sooner and start treatment earlier.

As the project’s award application noted, IPSO not only focused on hardwiring local processes but broadly published findings and created inclusive, accessible analytics and shared learning networks to foster continued pediatric sepsis improvement after the collaborative.

Besides demonstrating effective spread across its 66 hospitals, many IPSO hospitals have spread their programs to transport teams, ambulatory settings, outlying affiliate hospitals, and broader communities. 

“We are proud of the IPSO Collaborative for their work over the last seven years to reduce pediatric deaths from sepsis. Congratulations to the team on receiving the John M. Eisenberg Award for National Achievement in Patient Safety and Quality; this recognition reflects the dedication of 66 member hospitals that have improved pediatric sepsis outcomes,” said Children’s Hospital Association President and CEO Matthew Cook, in a statement. “This effort has not only advanced best practices, but has saved lives, reducing mortality from 2.2% to 1.5%. On behalf of the Children’s Hospital Association, thank you to every hospital and clinician whose work made this achievement possible.”

The 2025 Eisenberg Award for Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality honors the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for its initiative, “Improving Organ Transplantation Access in Underserved Communities.”

The 2025 Eisenberg Award for Individual Achievement honors Rollin J. “Terry” Fairbanks, M.D., M.S., senior vice president and chief quality & safety officer, MedStar Health, and executive director, MedStar Institute for Quality & Safety, located in Maryland and Washington, D.C.