Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2024 AHA Board Chair Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, and past chairs.
The Backyard Initiative at Allina Health, based in Minnesota, is truly taking care beyond hospital walls. BYI focuses on seven neighborhoods that surround Allina's Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Phillips Eye Institute, and corporate headquarters and are home to many residents with poor health…
Effective care transitions programs can do more than improve patient care: patients learn to manage their own health and can avoid a hospital readmission. Thomasville (NC) Medical Center, a 146-bed hospital, implemented its TMC to Home program in July 2011 to target at-risk patients with acute MI,…
A commitment to diversity came first. That was followed by specific action projects to increase diversity in management and leadership and increase cultural proficiency in health care. In early 2006, an ad hoc committee at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, reviewed the organization's work…
Does your hospital huddle? Staff in the medical-surgical unit at Fairbanks (AK) Memorial Hospital is implementing huddles and other strategies to reduce falls among inpatients. Unit staff determined that a huddle called immediately after a patient falls is crucial for learning and helping to…
Today we need leaders who can help address the challenges and maximize the tremendous opportunities for transformation and innovation in the U.S. health care system. AHA's intensive interactive Health Care Transformation Fellowship provides senior health care leaders with the implementation…
From flexible visiting hours to family-centered rounds, hospitals are encouraging patients and families to become involved in their care. A new report from the AHA Committee on Research “Engaging Health Care Users: A Framework for Healthy Individuals and Communities” presents a…
Central line-associated bloodstream infections cause serious illness and death. Front-line caregivers in 100 neonatal intensive care units in nine states—caring for 8,400 newborn patients—used prevention practice checklists and improved communication to prevent an estimated 131 CLABSIs…
Imagine being hospitalized for a serious illness and being unable to communicate with nurses or doctors because you did not speak their language and could not read your own language. Add to that: having no insurance and no clue what the diagnosis meant. About 10 years ago, a Mexican immigrant was…
Year after year, America's hospitals respond to meet pressing community health care needs. In 2008 after the closing of a local health center which had treated large numbers of refugees, Rochester (N.Y.) General Health System (RGHS) created the Refugee Healthcare Program the same year. RGHS…
During 2012, despite economic challenges, hospitals and health care systems throughout the United States delivered safe, effective, equitable and high-quality care and put patients first. For example, Billings Clinic in Billings, MT, partnered with another local hospital and the public health…