ISMP Announces 28th Annual Cheers Award Recipients

Awardees Focused on Smart Pump Integration, Safe Chemotherapy Handling, and Patient Partnership

WILLOW GROVE, Pa., Nov. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is proud to announce the 28th Annual Cheers Award winners, who have significantly advanced medication safety through innovation and collaboration.

The awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. The annual ISMP Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a standard of excellence in medication safety. For more information, visit: https://www.ismp.org/cheers-awards.

"This year's ISMP Cheers Award recipients exemplify how collaboration, technology, and empowering patients can drive meaningful and lasting safety improvements," said Rita K. Jew, PharmD, MBA, BCPPS, FASHP, President of ISMP. "Their impressive work is helping safeguard both patients and healthcare professionals, and we're honored to recognize their leadership."

The winners of this year's ISMP Cheers Awards are:

AdventHealth
Altamonte Springs, FL

AdventHealth is receiving a Cheers Award for its comprehensive infusion pump management strategy across a large health system. In the past year, the AdventHealth team successfully incorporated smart pump integration with autoprogramming and autodocumentation in more than 50 hospitals throughout nine states. Prior to that, they created central governance with a multidisciplinary Smart Pump Oversight Committee (SPOC), spearheaded OLTRA (One Library To Rule All), an initiative to standardize AdventHealth's smart pump drug libraries, and development of a smart pump dashboard that monitors metrics for shared learning. They have continuously improved their processes, meeting national and organizational benchmarks and achieving an impressive 95% pump library compliance rate. The team's best practices have been shared on the national level, including at the 2024 IHI Patient Safety Congress, Epic XGM 2025, and a 2025 ISMP Medication Safety Officers Society briefing.

MiKaela Olsen, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCNS, FAAN, and AnnMarie Walton, PhD, MPH, RN, OCN, CHES, FAAN
Baltimore, MD, and Durham, NC

Dr. Olsen and Dr. Walton are being recognized for their leadership to improve the safe handling and administration of hazardous drugs for healthcare workers and caregivers. Among their many accomplishments, they co-edited the 4^th edition of Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs for the Oncology Nursing Society, a resource that is utilized by nurses all over the world. Drs. Olsen and Walton also each co-led the development of a Joint Position Statement on Safe Handling of Hazardous Drugs for the Oncology Nursing Society and Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association and have contributed to numerous other standards and guidelines. Dr. Olsen is one of the experts developing a national Hazardous Drug Exposure Registry and has published on strategies to ensure full dose delivery of antineoplastic drugs to oncology patients. Dr. Walton conducts pivotal research on reducing healthcare workers' exposure to hazardous drugs and was central to passage of state-based legislation to improve healthcare worker safety. They both advise health systems nationally and internationally, and their work has had a global influence on medication safety in oncology.

The Michael R. Cohen Lifetime Achievement Award is being presented to Martin J. Hatlie, JD, a patient safety pioneer whose career has focused on advancing the role of patients and caregivers as essential partners in improving safety across the healthcare continuum. Hatlie has been active in the field for more than 25 years and served as the Founding Executive Director of the National Patient Safety Foundation, helping to establish patient safety as a recognized discipline in healthcare.

He has led healthcare transformation through numerous initiatives supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), including co-leading the development of AHRQ's Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families and contributing to the AHRQ Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) Toolkit. He also contributed to the Patient Safety Structural Measure implemented in the Medicare Program in 2025.

Hatlie is a cofounder of Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US), the US branch of the World Health Organization's Patients for Patient Safety international network, and serves as Director for Policy & Advocacy. He is part of the PFPS US team developing Project PIVOT (Patients Involved in developing Outcomes Together), a PCORI-funded initiative to better understand what patients want to report about experiences with safety events, diagnostic errors, and bias.

Hatlie currently is on the Board of Certified Professionals in Patient Safety and is a member of the Steering Committee overseeing the implementation of Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety. He serves as cochair of the Leapfrog Group's Patient and Family Engagement Expert Panel and on advisory boards for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the World Health Organization, and Georgetown University's Executive Master's Program in Clinical Quality, Safety, and Leadership, among others.

"The 2025 Cheers Award winners share ISMP and ECRI's mission to make safe medication practices an integral part of healthcare," said Dheerendra Kommala, MD, Chief Medical Officer at ECRI. "Their achievements demonstrate that advancing safety isn't just about preventing harm—it is about fostering a culture of learning, accountability, and well-designed systems." 

About the Institute for Safe Medication Practices

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is the nation's first 501c (3) nonprofit organization devoted entirely to preventing medication errors. ISMP is known and respected for its medication safety information. For more than 30 years, it also has served as a vital force for progress. ISMP's advocacy work alone has resulted in numerous necessary changes in clinical practice, public policy, and drug labeling and packaging. Among its many initiatives, ISMP runs the only national voluntary practitioner medication error reporting program, publishes newsletters with real-time error information read and trusted throughout the global healthcare community, and offers a wide range of unique educational programs, tools, and guidelines. In 2020, ISMP was acquired by ECRI, a global organization advancing safe, evidence-based healthcare. The ECRI and the ISMP PSO is a federally certified patient safety organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a watchdog organization, ISMP receives no advertising revenue and depends entirely on charitable donations, educational grants, newsletter subscriptions, and volunteer efforts to pursue its lifesaving work. Visit www.ismp.org and follow @ismp_org to learn more.

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SOURCE Institute for Safe Medication Practices