/ en Mon, 28 Jul 2025 21:05:23 -0500 Mon, 28 Jul 25 15:58:16 -0500 /news/headline/2025-07-28-ashe-recognizes-2025-award-winners The American Society for Health Care Engineering July 28 announced the recipients of its annual member awards during the 2025 Health Care Facilities Innovation Conference, taking place July 27-30 in Columbus, Ohio. The Crystal Eagle Leadership Award, considered ASHE’s lifetime achievement award, was presented to Dave Lockhart, executive director for facilities operations and maintenance for Kaiser Permanente’s national shared service operations based in Oakland, Calif. The ASHE President’s Award, given at the discretion of the sitting ASHE president to an individual who excels at optimizing the health care physical environment, was presented to Larry Newlands, director of energy management for Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston. Additionally, ASHE recognized members who attained senior and fellow status within the association this year. ASHE also announced recipients of its Emerging Regional Leader Awards, recognizing 10 young professionals and individuals new to the field. Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:58:16 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-28-pediatric-flu-deaths-reach-266-2024-2025-season Five pediatric flu deaths were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, pushing the total to 266 for the 2024-2025 flu season, according to the latest data. The total is the highest reported in any non-pandemic flu season since the agency began reporting it in 2004. The CDC said 90% of reported pediatric deaths this flu season have happened to children who were not fully vaccinated against the flu. Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:47:08 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-28-samhsa-releases-results-annual-survey-drug-use-and-mental-health The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration July 28 released its latest national survey on drug use and mental health. Among the findings, the percentage of adolescents aged 12 to 17 who had serious thoughts of suicide declined from 12.9% in 2021 to 10.1% in 2024. It also found a decline in adolescents who experienced a major depressive episode, dropping from 20.8% in 2021 to 15.4% in 2024. The survey also found that among the 61.5 million adults aged 18 or older in 2024 with any mental illness, 52.1% (32 million) received any mental health treatment in the past year. Among 14.6 million adults with serious mental illness in the past year, 70.8% (10.3 million) received mental health treatment. Due to changes to the survey questions and approach, not all estimates in the 2024 survey are comparable with 2023 and 2022 estimates, SAMHSA notes.  Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:36:57 -0500 News Feed /news/chairpersons-file/2025-07-28-chair-file-obbba-and-whats-next-health-care The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act will bring big changes to health care. AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack joined me for a Leadership Dialogue conversation earlier this month to talk about the key provisions that apply to health care. If you missed that episode, you can watch the video or listen to the podcast.Our health care field, supported by patch after patch since 1965, is not sustainable for today’s world of 2025. Some of the patches that we needed to keep going are gone, and it’s unrealistic to think they’re coming back. This time doesn’t just feel different, it is different. So what should we be focused on as hospitals and health systems?First, we have to accept reality and make the smartest choices we can with the resources and constraints we have to maximize our delivery on our mission. The AHA has already begun some of this work and will be assisting hospitals to help individuals retain eligibility for coverage, as well as sharing best practices for improvements and operational efficiencies. We also are looking ahead at several hospital priorities that will need to be addressed before the end of the year — from waivers for telehealth and hospital at home, Medicaid disproportionate share hospital cuts, the Medicare rule making process, regulatory relief and more. Now more than ever, we are here to help you do what you do best: care for our communities.While the AHA is pulling all the levers in Washington, D.C., to advocate for priorities that advance health, all of us have an important role to play in engaging our legislators. There’s nothing more powerful than hearing from you, their constituents, about the impact certain policies will have on the people they represent. You can find resources and more information on how to best do this below.Our second, and most important, job is to actually reform and transform health care for the long term. We need to do the hard work and create a health care model that is sustainable for the world of 2065, not 1965. We have to start putting proposals on the table that challenge the status quo yet move us forward.At the AHA Leadership Summit in Nashville last week, I heard so many incredible stories of how you have started this work. As a field, we are using technology and innovation to transform care delivery, improve quality and patient safety, and meet people where they need care. And that is what makes me hopeful and optimistic.We’ve been dealt a difficult hand, but it’s our opportunity to open the door wide for transformation and innovation. We owe it to ourselves, our team members, our patients and our communities to make the very best choices we can today — and to transform our health care system for tomorrow.Helping You Help Communities — Key AHA ResourcesAdvocacy Resources on OBBBAAHA Action CenterKey Advocacy Issues and ResourcesGuide to Working with Congress Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:16:20 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-25-senate-help-committee-approves-hhs-assistant-director-nominee The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday voted 12-11 along party lines to recommend the confirmation of Brian Christine, M.D., to be assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. In that role, Christine, a urologist, would be an advisor to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as lead a new HHS office, the Administration for a Healthy America. The nomination next goes to a vote before the full Senate.    Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:22:13 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-25-63-million-americans-are-family-caregivers A report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving released today found nearly 1 in 4 U.S. adults (63 million) are caring for an adult or child with a complex medical condition or disability. Over half of the caretakers are managing complex medical and nursing tasks like injections, wound care or medication management, though only 20% have training to do so.  Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:17:50 -0500 News Feed /news/perspective/2025-07-25-delivering-safe-quality-care-patients-top-priority-hospitals-and-health-systems The 2025 AHA Leadership Summit wrapped up on July 22, and as always, it was energizing and inspiring to connect with so many talented and dedicated people whose passion and vision for health care promise great things for the future.But even as we heard new ideas about innovative approaches shaping care delivery today, we know that all these exciting advancements will never take anyone’s eye off the true North Star of health care: quality and patient safety.Delivering safe, high quality care to patients remains hospitals’ top priority and is at the center of everything they do. The AHA continues to play a key role in leading and supporting the field by developing new resources, spreading innovative initiatives and strategies, and highlighting outstanding efforts through national recognition programs.One way we do this is through the AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, which was launched in 2023 to catalyze, convene and connect members around patient safety while helping lift up your own powerful stories. This initiative focuses on providing hospitals with tools and data to advance patient safety, offers a platform for sharing their stories of improvement with peers and highlights examples of innovation that support, spread and sustain safety improvement.As part of the initiative, this week we announced a collaboration with the health care technology company Epic to help more hospitals adopt a set of tools to aid in the detection and treatment of postpartum hemorrhage — a serious and potentially life-threatening complication of childbirth that accounts for 11% of maternal deaths in the United States. Point-of-care tools in electronic health records can help health care providers prevent, detect and treat postpartum hemorrhage, ultimately saving lives and improving care for mothers across America.This work builds on the AHA’s Better Health for Mothers and Babies Initiative, which provides a wide array of resources to help hospitals and health care systems play a key role in improving maternal and infant outcomes. Hospitals and health systems do some of their most important learning from each other. Sharing best practices, ideas and experiences that have succeeded in improving health and safety outcomes is one of the best ways to advance health for our field.Throughout the Leadership Summit, we hosted many workshops and sessions focused on quality and patient safety. We heard from hospital and health system leaders about how cutting-edge artificial intelligence is transforming the patient and clinical experience, how employee engagement is a driver of safety, quality and the patient experience of care, and how to integrate storytelling into patient safety efforts.We also recognized several hospitals and health systems with AHA awards, including AHA’s Quest for Quality Prize, which honors exceptional health care leadership and innovation in improving quality and advancing health in America’s communities.Health care ultimately is about people caring for other people. While hospitals and health systems continue to make progress advancing quality and safety, we know that the journey is far from over. As we navigate the challenging road ahead with exciting opportunities to advance clinical care, even with its unpredictable twists and turns, quality and patient safety will always be our guide. Fri, 25 Jul 2025 09:21:14 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-24-fda-issues-most-serious-recall-edwards-lifesciences-cannulas The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall of Edwards Lifesciences OptiSite Arterial Perfusion Cannula devices due to the potential for serious injury or death. Edwards identified incidents in which a 3mm to 4mm section of wire from the wire-reinforcement coil at the cannula tip was found to be exposed. The FDA said that some Femoral Arterial Cannula models are made of the same components as the OptiSite Arterial Perfusion Cannula models. Edwards has called for both products to be removed from wherever they are used or sold. Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:30:57 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-24-microsoft-says-china-based-threat-actors-behind-sharepoint-attacks Microsoft July 22 released an update on the ongoing cyberattacks to SharePoint servers used within organizations, attributing the incidents to China-based threat actors. The company said the attacks include state-sponsored actors from the Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon groups, as well as China-based actor Storm-2603. The attacks have not impacted SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365. The new announcement includes updated indicators of compromise and clarified mitigation and protection guidance. The AHA July 21 released an advisory with additional information on the attacks. For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Scott Gee, AHA deputy national advisor of cybersecurity and risk, at sgee@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity. Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:27:10 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-24-agencies-warn-activity-interlock-ransomware The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center July 22 released a joint advisory detailing malicious activity from Interlock ransomware. Activity was first discovered in September 2024 and as recently as June, targeting various organizations and critical infrastructure. The agencies said they are aware of Interlock encryptors designed for Windows and Linux operating systems and have observed cyber actors obtaining access using an uncommon method of drive-by download from compromised legitimate websites, among other tactics. The advisory includes mitigation strategies to help protect against the ransomware.“Interlock has been directly implicated in high impact ransomware attacks against hospitals and health systems, resulting in the disruption to care delivery and creating a risk to patient and community safety,” said John Riggi, AHA national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “It remains one of the top ransomware groups targeting health care. Health care organizations are encouraged to pay special attention to this alert, implement the recommended mitigation protocols and load the detailed indicators of compromise into network defenses.” For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.   Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:25:38 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-24-aha-epic-collaborate-toward-improving-maternal-health-outcomes The AHA July 24 announced it is collaborating with health care technology leader Epic to help hospitals adopt tools that support the early detection and treatment of postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal mortality. The organizations have released a toolkit that includes dynamic risk assessments, clinical decision support and treatment guidance embedded in the electronic health record. With the proper permissions from applicable content providers, users of any EHR should be able to implement a similar set of tools. “The ���������� Association and Epic share a deep commitment to improving health outcomes for moms and babies,” said Chris DeRienzo, M.D., AHA chief physician executive and a neonatologist. “This new collaboration amplifies our efforts to drive continuous improvement by sharing evidence-based resources to help reduce this tragic condition. It’s a natural extension of AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, a collaborative data-driven effort to highlight and learn from patient safety progress at hospitals and health systems around the country.” The AHA and Epic will support hospitals in their implementation journey with programming, resources and a space to learn from each other and engage with hospitals already seeing successful outcomes with items that are included in the toolkit.  Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:01:03 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-23-white-house-releases-ai-action-plan The White House July 23 released an action plan with a series of more than 90 policy recommendations to expand the use of artificial intelligence. The plan follows a directive from the administration’s Jan. 23 executive order, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The policy recommendations are aligned across three pillars — accelerating innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security. The action plan recommends the launch of sector-specific efforts, including health care, to convene stakeholders to accelerate the development and adoption of national standards for AI systems. It also calls for testing AI system pilots in real-world settings across health care and other sectors through regulatory sandboxes and AI centers of excellence.Other policy recommendations include removing onerous federal regulations that hinder AI development and deployment; expediting permits for building data centers and semiconductor facilities; expanding AI literacy and skills for education and workforce training; and bolstering critical infrastructure cybersecurity pertaining to AI. Wed, 23 Jul 2025 15:08:08 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-23-hhs-adopts-recommendation-remove-thimerosal-all-flu-vaccines The Department of Health and Human Services July 23 announced it is recommending the removal of thimerosal from all U.S. flu vaccines. The announcement follows a recommendation last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:48:33 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-23-aha-podcast-how-el-camino-health-transforming-age-friendly-care Carolyn Bogard, DNP, R.N., director of care coordination and palliative care at El Camino Health, talks about her system’s use of data to harness the passion care providers feel for improving outcomes and streamlining care delivery for older adults. LISTEN NOW View Transcript   00:00:01:06 - 00:00:23:22 Tom Haederle Welcome to Advancing Health. The 4Ms are the core components of Age-Friendly health systems that aim to improve the quality of care for older adults. Today, we hear from California-based El Camino Health about how its adoption of the forums has produced measurable improvements for the older people it serves. 00:00:23:24 - 00:00:40:20 Raahat Ansari Hi everyone. We're here in Chicago at AHA’s Advancing Age-Friendly Care Convening. I'm Raahat Ansari, senior program manager at the ���������� Association. Today I'm here and joined by Carolyn Bogard from El Camino Hospital. Thank you so much for being here with us today. 00:00:40:23 - 00:00:43:19 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. 00:00:43:22 - 00:01:06:18 Raahat Ansari Great. So we wanted to take some time to understand your Age-Friendly journey and how you implemented the 4M's framework at your organization. And I'll just take a quick moment for those listeners who might be new to this work to explain that the 4Ms is: what matters, medication, mentation and mobility, and applying that care to older adults. So can you tell us how it got started? 00:01:06:20 - 00:01:29:09 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Absolutely. And again, thank you so much for having me and for this opportunity. I'm so proud to talk about the work being done at El Camino Health, and where we're at on our journey. We are still in the beginning phases of our journey and the 4M implementation at El Camino Health - it actually started with the leadership of one nurse. 00:01:29:15 - 00:02:02:08 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. This nurse was making advances in her unit to implement an evidence based project, and her passion was really around delivering Age-Friendly care to older adults. And through her work and collaboration with pharmacy and our Epic analysts and other interdisciplinary team members, she was able to advance and roll out the 4M's on this medical unit within El Camino Health. 00:02:02:11 - 00:02:14:15 Raahat Ansari It's amazing to hear. I just want to share that we do hear that a lot of organizations get started with this by one single individual championing this work, so I'm super excited to hear that that's the story at your organization. 00:02:14:18 - 00:02:37:21 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, we're super proud of her. And she continues to be a steadfast advocate for this work and continues to be so passionate about it and deeply involved with rolling out the 4Ms further throughout our health system. We certainly saw the impact in the benefits of rolling out the 4Ms and of this Age-Friendly health initiative. 00:02:37:24 - 00:02:47:22 Raahat Ansari Did you see some outcomes and did you have data and what did you do with that data? And I wonder, were you able to share that with your leadership if you needed some help with leadership buy in? 00:02:47:29 - 00:03:26:18 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Yes. One of the things that we helped to do to advance this work, one of the first things is really to pull some of the data. And some of the data already on this unit was around high patient engagement scores and also the volume of older adults within this specific unit. We knew through the Age-Friendly initiative and the work with the IHI and ���������� Association that rolling out the 4Ms within a health system impacts length of stay, readmissions, falls and other patient health outcomes and health system outcomes, too. 00:03:26:21 - 00:03:52:29 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. And we were able to bring this information in this data to our chief nursing officer. And we began conversations around how can we expand this initiative throughout our health care organization? So, she was extremely supportive and excited and passionate around this work as well. And then it was a matter of identifying next steps. 00:03:53:03 - 00:03:58:09 Raahat Ansari So it was the data that got your chief nursing officer on board. Did I hear that correctly? 00:03:58:09 - 00:04:32:15 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. I think it was the data and also her passion around it. And I think what I've seen is there is a lot of health care providers passionate about caring for older adults. And I think the 4M framework really helps to create a platform for where to focus that passion and energy to help produce really tangible outcomes and help to really streamline health care delivery for the older adults in our health systems. 00:04:32:17 - 00:04:43:17 Raahat Ansari So I'm hearing a little bit of outcomes across the board. So there were definitely some positive patient outcomes. And from what you just shared right now, there were some positive provider outcomes. 00:04:43:19 - 00:05:21:09 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Well, I think certainly our providers are interested in continuing to advance this work. I think from the pilot phases and initial rollout of the 4Ms and this unit, the nurses in particular in this area found the work to be important and meaningful. And recognized the value that this work can have for their patients. And, you know, one thing that we did within our health system, when we're talking a little bit about scope and spread and how to really expand this work is, where do you begin? 00:05:21:15 - 00:05:52:05 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. We had some success on this medical unit within our health system. What nursing leaders, what key stakeholders within the health system do we need to further expand? And we are so thankful to have the executive support that we do. Because our CNO knows exactly who to pull into the conversation. And one of the stakeholders that was really helpful with advancing these conversations is our process improvement adviser. 00:05:52:07 - 00:06:19:20 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. And we really started by identifying what problem are we trying to solve, and then really doing a value stream about current processes within our health care organization. And what do we need to do to further expand some of this work? And some of the things that we identified right off the bat is identifying some programmatic leadership. 00:06:19:23 - 00:06:48:24 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Who's in charge of further expanding this, this, health care initiative? And also, where can we get consistent data from? Data can help tell your story and we know that this is an important story to tell, both to our patients and our health system. And we were lucky enough to work with a fantastic data analyst within our health care organization and he helped to develop an Age-Friendly dashboard. 00:06:48:27 - 00:07:29:12 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. It's still in the beginning stages because sometimes there's so much data you can get paralyzed. And so we have to really think about what data do we need and how do we act upon the data that we have. Part of the initial data collection was around our patient population. You know, better understanding who are we caring for in our health system, identifying certainly ages and demographics and what service lines are these patients on based on that data that's helping to inform us around which units will we spread to next? 00:07:29:14 - 00:07:45:24 Raahat Ansari I think that makes perfect sense. And one question that I want to ask you that I imagine some of our listeners might have of you is do you have any tips that you could share that you used to get that leadership buy in? We all know how important that is to leverage. 00:07:45:27 - 00:08:30:04 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Well, I'm so thankful to have regular and consistent communication with my executive and that alone gives me a pathway to communicate where we need help and what type of support that we need. And through that support and engagement and ongoing communication, we were able to develop a plan. Now, the plan did not develop overnight. It took probably three months from that initial conversation to even get a quorum of nursing directors across the organization in one room, with the process improvement advisory to talk a little bit about Age-Friendly care within our health care organization. 00:08:30:04 - 00:08:35:16 Raahat Ansari And that's a success in and of itself, right? And get have all the stakeholders in one room to talk about that. 00:08:35:16 - 00:09:13:09 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Definitely. And when we had these initial conversations, everyone had different thoughts and ideas and opinions and observations about what was going well within the organization and what could be improved. And following that, we completed an A3, which is really a, you know, a systematic way to tackle a problem. And through input in discussion and these observations from all the nurse leaders, we were really able to see what areas are we doing well in and what areas can we improve in. 00:09:13:12 - 00:09:39:05 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. And because we did have the 4M framework already rolled out on one unit, we weren't starting from scratch. We already had a pilot unit that implemented the 4Ms and was successful with that. So it was really more about building upon that success. Now we're at a spot as we think a little bit more about spread and scale across the organization. 00:09:39:08 - 00:09:51:03 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. How do we dive a little bit deeper into each M, and how do we gain further engagement from members of the interdisciplinary team? 00:09:51:06 - 00:10:05:06 Raahat Ansari And I do hear another challenge from some organizations about breaking down those silos and having that those interdisciplinary conversations. Any advice that you could share and how you successfully made that happen at your organization? 00:10:05:09 - 00:10:29:19 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for that question. And I would just add, being here at this forum, it's just so fantastic because even just today, I learned different ideas from different folks within the community. So one of the areas that we talked about was how do we get that buy-in and collaboration from members of the interdisciplinary team? 00:10:29:21 - 00:11:04:27 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Being that it's, you know, pharmacy or rehab services, case management, social worker, even our physicians, and certainly one of the best practices that was identified is really trying to find a champion in each area. And in my experience and observations, I have seen some passion out there about delivering high quality care to our older adult patient population. So at least within my health system, I don't have to look too far for individuals that are interested in advancing this work. 00:11:05:00 - 00:11:32:02 Raahat Ansari When we started this work, that provider re-engagement and that spark, that passion that really was reignited when providers were working towards implementing the 4Ms framework into a patient care plan - that was something we were not expecting to see. So I really appreciate that you're saying that it's not hard to find, because we have seen that in real life when we have new teams come and join the action 00:11:32:02 - 00:11:50:00 Raahat Ansari communities a little unsure of what to expect, what they're going to get out of it. And come two, three months into this, we've got a whole host of providers from all different disciplines who are really excited and passionate about being able to implement this work with their patients. So just wanted to highlight that point. Thank you for bringing that up. 00:11:50:06 - 00:12:08:15 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Oh you're welcome. And actually to your exact point, I have been part of the action community intermittently, throughout a number of years based on various jobs that I've had. And I get it. Caring for older adults, it is a passion of mine and it's such a privilege to be able to continue to be part of this work. 00:12:08:18 - 00:12:46:11 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. But I would even think 5 to 7 years ago, people were just better understanding the importance of delivering high quality, reliable care to older adults. And even in that short period of time, I feel as if I have seen some reinvigoration in interest into this real specialty area of medicine. It's fantastic because it really does take a village, and an interdisciplinary team to provide holistic care to our patients, certainly within the hospital setting, but also across the care continuum. 00:12:46:14 - 00:13:03:09 Raahat Ansari And so what I'm hearing is you have nailed it at this at this one site, you are done and done. Just kidding. Because that work is never done, right? But you've made some really good strides at one care site and you're moving to expand to other care sites within your organization. And that is fantastic news and something to celebrate. 00:13:03:11 - 00:13:05:06 Raahat Ansari Thank you again for being here with us today. 00:13:05:09 - 00:13:08:05 Carolyn Bogard, R.N. Thank you. It's been an honor and a pleasure. 00:13:08:07 - 00:13:16:18 Tom Haederle Thanks for listening to Advancing Health. Please subscribe and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:46:05 -0500 News Feed /news/headline/2025-07-23-fda-alerts-baxter-infusion-pump-issue The Food and Drug Administration July 22 released an early alert for Novum IQ large volume infusion pumps by Baxter. The company stated that the pump has potential for underinfusion when transitioning to a higher flow rate. The FDA said Baxter has reported 79 serious injuries and two deaths associated with the issue as of June 27. Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:43:34 -0500 News Feed