Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2024 AHA Board Chair Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, and past chairs.
It is both “a sprint and a marathon.” That's how a team at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., described reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Along with SJMH, many hospitals and care systems are part of the sprint-marathon and using the Comprehensive Unit-…
Only a small percentage of patients develop a health care-associated infection after surgery, and it is estimated that about half of such infections are preventable. West Valley Medical Center, a 150-bed community hospital in Caldwell, Idaho, participates in STOP SSIs—Study to Optimally…
How do you successfully integrate behavioral health and primary care? A recent HPOE webinar highlighted the work of St. Charles Health System in Bend, Oregon, to coordinate care and help develop a care transformation plan in the state. The plan's goal is to achieve the Triple Aim of improved…
Providing quality care for patients with limited English proficiency can be challenging, even for large health care systems. Each year Vidant Health, a regional health system serving eastern North Carolina, logs more than 24,000 distinct patient encounters with a primary language other than English…
The aviation industry has successfully used checklists to ensure safe air travel for passengers and crew. Now health care professionals are using checklists more frequently to provide safe care for patients. Checklists have improved processes for patient care in operating rooms, intensive care and…
Everyone is talking “population health management,” and many health care organizations are successfully defining it. Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, a rural health care system headquartered in Wyoming's capital, helped establish the Cheyenne Health and Wellness Center in 2005. CHWC…
Here's a disheartening statistic from the National Cancer Institute: in the United States, white women have the highest incidence rate for breast cancer, but black women are most likely to die from the disease. The Gibbs Cancer Center and Research Institute at Spartanburg (South Carolina) Regional…
Being accessible only by airplane or boat adds to the scenic character of Wrangell, Alaska (population 2,300), but it also creates challenges for health care delivery. Wrangell Medical Center, the only hospital in the community and one of its largest employers, includes an eight-bed acute unit and…
June 2–8 is Community Health Improvement Week. The Association for Community Health Improvement sponsors the week to increase understanding of the vital role of community health improvement strategies to individual medical care and to broader population health approaches. More and more…
Children diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavior disorders need quality care in a nurturing but structured and safe environment. The Innovations Program at Our Lady of Peace in Louisville, part of KentuckyOne Health, opened in 1997 with one adolescent unit and 22…