In January, 2007, Victoria and Armando Nahum approached the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA) Vi Naylor, Executive Vice President and Kathy McGowan, Director of Quality & Patient Safety, to relay the events and circumstances

surrounding the death of their son, Josh. Vi and Kathy were incredibly touched by their story and their commitment to keeping other parents from experiencing the pain they went through.

Since losing Josh to a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), the Nahums have dedicated their lives to the fight to eliminate preventable infections contracted in healthcare facilities and to educate the public on ways to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from HAIs while undergoing medical care.

Kathy was most impressed by Victoria and Armando’s positive attitude, the “let’s get it done“ spirit with which they approached their goal. Together, they developed an award specifically to celebrate the accomplishments of GHA -member hospitals in the area of HAI prevention and to honor the memory of their son.

The GHA’s Partnership for Health and Accountability already recognized outstanding member institutions and healthcare workers with awards for helping to improve the health status of individuals and communities, in categories determined by hospital bed size. With the new Josh Nahum Special Achievement Award for Infection Prevention & Control, it was decided that the award would be open to all member hospitals, regardless of size.

GHA member hospitals have until the end of July to submit their applications for the Josh Nahum Award. Judging takes place over a six-week period by a panel of professionals from within the healthcare industry. Past judges have included pharmacists, physicians from the Centers for Disease Control, and members of the health insurance industry. To avoid conflict of interest, judges are not selected from GHA - member hospitals, and all identifying information is removed from the applications before they are given to the judges.
 

GHA’s Quality & Patient Safety team also created an initiative called Teams for Infection Prevention Success (TIPS), with the goal of making the state of Georgia the model for eliminating preventable infections through a collaborative effort of the healthcare community. When hospitals join the TIPS program, they commit to focus their efforts on infection prevention, by culture and organizational change, to improve the health and well-being of the community they serve. Among the many ways they do this are by aligning themselves with statewide and national infection prevention efforts; by providing ongoing professional and public education on infection prevention; by sharing information about infection prevention successes with other member hospitals; and by providing adequate funding for infection prevention and evidence-based practices.