Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2024 AHA Board Chair Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, and past chairs.
Think of all the instruments, equipment and furniture in a hospital operating room. Any of these surfaces can harbor microorganisms that cause infection. At Fletcher Allen Health Care, an academic and university medical center in Burlington, Vt., infection prevention includes multifaceted…
Improving discharge can reap multiple benefits for patients and providers, including reducing readmissions. At Dameron Hospital, a 202-bed community hospital in Stockton, Calif., staff aimed to reduce readmissions for congestive heart failure patients, expecting to learn about decreasing…
Telepsychiatry is playing a pivotal role in providing timely care to hospitalized mental health patients and to others beyond hospital walls. At Seton Shoal Creek Hospital, a mental health hospital in Austin, Texas, Kari Wolf, M.D., vice president, medical affairs, started using telemedicine to…
More than 64 million surgeries are performed annually in the United States. Preventing surgical site infections is one of 10 focus areas of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Partnership for Patients initiative. On its “pathway to zero surgical site infections,” Kaiser…
Ensuring the highest quality for patient care means continuously reviewing processes and outcomes. Those words are straight from the website of Verde Valley Medical Center, a 99-bed, nonprofit, rural hospital in Cottonwood, Ariz. VVMC reviews processes and outcomes to prevent inpatient harm in…
Patients admitted to a hospital for one condition—congestive heart failure, for example—are typically readmitted for something completely different. University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Medical Center, in Little Rock, is working to reduce medication-related readmissions, which have…
April is National Minority Health Month. Launched in April 2001 by the National Minority Health Foundation, National Minority Health Month addresses the needs of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans and other minority populations. To commemorate the occasion, Equity of Care is…
The chair files highlight stories of hospitals and health systems that are implementing innovative practices and streamlined processes to improve the quality of health care for patients in their communities. We encourage you to submit your hospital, health system or association's story to hpoe@aha.…
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,…