Chair file: Honoring Our Hospital Teams This Week and Every Week

It’s National Hospital Week — an annual event of seven days to recognize the 5,000 hospitals, health systems and networks, as well as the more than 6 million people, who provide care to individuals and communities.

It would take more than seven days to recount all the ways that health care professionals at our hospitals and health systems step up every day and every hour to care for patients, comfort families, save lives, and promote wellness and well-being. Our health care workforce has continued to serve our communities courageously and tirelessly, despite the extraordinary demands of a global pandemic that has spanned more than two years.

Yet hospitals and health systems have taken swift action and responded — surge after surge after surge.

Highlighting the theme “We Are Health Care,” the AHA is asking the public to join the efforts to mark National Hospital Week by showing support to all health care workers. We encourage individuals and communities to create unique ways of showing support to your local hospital and its caregivers.

• Visit AHA.org to find ideas and guidance on messaging, including sample social media posts and graphics. Use #HospitalWeek in social posts supporting your local hospital and caregivers.
• Share a story about how hospitals have provided care and supported health in your community throughout the pandemic.
• Submit an image or story for a new COVID-19 pandemic reflection book to be published by the AHA’s Living Learning Network.

In addition, National Nurses Week is May 6–12, an opportunity to recognize the unwavering commitment and care of nurses to patients, families and communities. Visit AHA.org/workforce for videos featuring nurses on the front lines.

I am proud to be in health care. And I am proud of the tireless work we have seen play out — community by community and in each and every hospital — by our front-line caregivers, technicians, environmental services teams, therapists, pharmacists, interpreters, administrators and so many others.

Health care professionals have stepped up and leaned in — week after week, day after day, hour after hour — to provide compassionate care and healing during unprecedented challenges.

Thank you to our hospital and health system teams for saving lives, touching lives and making a difference in our communities.