AHA Stat Blog

With the biennial DEI benchmark survey now available through March 15, read AHA’s Leon Caldwell’s blog addressing the hesitancy related to taking the survey, as well as strategies to manage said anxieties. For questions related to your participation in the survey, please contact AHA’s survey support team at surveysupport@aha.org.

This week health care leaders and front-line professionals are convening in Chicago to discuss best practices that enhance the patient and caregiver experience, improve quality and increase value. AHA’s Advancing Care Conference is designed to equip participants with customized strategies and an actionable plan to tackle challenges.

For the past week, we have seen heartbreaking images from Ukraine, including newborn babies being moved from the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital to a makeshift bomb shelter in the basement, depicting the devastation of war. 

We’ve seen that valuable training and professional development help employees feel happier in their work, become more excited about the prospect of success and develop a higher self-worth.

On this episode, I talk with Marcus Whitney, co-founder and partner of Jumpstart Health Investors, focused on innovation and investment in health care. Whitney also is founder and general partner of Jumpstart Nova, a venture fund investing in Black-led health care companies.

As Russia attempts to advance its political interests by its invasion of Ukraine through the use of its military, we have also seen stepped up cyberattacks attributed to Russia in recent days on major networks in Ukraine.

Every year, more than 1.6 million people in the U.S. suffer from heart attacks and strokes and more than 870,000 die from a cardiovascular disease. Though those numbers are alarming, what is more distressing is that 80% of those deaths are preventable.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many new challenges to America’s health care system. It also has exacerbated existing issues that were already in need of attention before the pandemic. 

Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, reflects on lessons learned and best practices moving forward. We know that our field will continue to be challenged by COVID-19, but this pandemic has taught us a valuable lesson: The future is not going to wait for us, and instead we have to be ready to embrace it.

February is Black History Month, and this year’s theme – Black Health and Wellness – recognizes medical scholars and health care providers. The theme is especially timely as our nation and health care system continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The AHA and Department of Health and Human Services, by way of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, have entered into a new grant to strengthen and reimagine the emergency management system for the nation’s health care and public health preparedness, response and recovery efforts to disasters and other emergencies. 

No one can deny that health care is changing. Our field is rapidly becoming more personalized, collaborative and digitally focused.

We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many longstanding challenges facing the health care field. One of the most alarming developments that is a top concern today is its effect on our nation’s blood supply. 

As rural health care leaders from the AHA and other health care organizations convened at AHA’s Rural Health Care Leadership Conference this week, a robust discussion took place over the role hospital and health system trustees can play in building confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines in their rural communities. Read six insights from the conference in this blog.

On a recent AHA webinar, health care leaders discussed key strategies for building trust in the safety and efficacy of the COVID1-9 vaccines among pregnant people.

Today I had the opportunity to welcome more than 1,000 people to the AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference.

Rural hospitals have been and always will be a critical part of the nation’s health care delivery system. For nearly one-in-five Americans, they offer a caring and compassionate lifeline for individuals and families who would have few health care options otherwise.

The Congressional Budget Office recently published a report that compares prices for hospital and physicians services paid by commercial insurers

This year, I look forward to continuing AHA’s leadership dialogues on trending topics with health care, business and community leaders from around the country.

Congress returns to Washington, D.C., next week and its top focus will be passing a spending package that keeps the government funded past Feb. 18.