Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
Patient engagement is paramount to reducing readmissions and improving quality of life. That's what is driving Beebe CAREs, launched in 2012 by Beebe Healthcare, based in Lewes, Del. Patients establish goals, framed not by a physiological measure but by a life event or activity: attending a child's鈥
At hospitals, health care systems and state, regional and metropolitan hospital associations across the country, executives, clinicians and staff are leading successful initiatives to improve quality, patient safety, clinical integration, population health and much more. The Hospitals in Pursuit of鈥
Scorecards aren't just for baseball and boxing. Health care leaders are using scorecards to track outcomes and improve quality and patient safety鈥攁nd more. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, in southeast Wisconsin, implemented a diversity recruitment and retention scorecard that has prompted鈥
n 2013, San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, Conejos County Hospital and five clinics officially became one entity: San Luis Valley Health. This rural health care system, based in Alamosa, Colo., is now fully focused on engaging community stakeholders and working together to craft a long-term鈥
Learning, sharing resources and discussing projects on cutting-edge topics in health care transformation: That's the opportunity for a select group of leaders who participate in the AHA Health Care Transformation Fellowship. During the nine-month program, fellows meet for three two-day interactive鈥
鈥淢obility is medicine,鈥 say clinicians and volunteers working together to improve patient care at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. The 867-bed hospital has created a patient-centered, cost-effective patient mobility program with volunteers. The goals: increase patient mobilization to prevent鈥
The Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence guide 鈥淧artnering to Improve Quality and Safety: A Framework for Working with Patient and Family Advisors鈥 provides information and best practices for hospital and care system leaders: whom to recruit as advisors, how to prepare patient and family advisors and鈥
April is National Minority Health Month. In 2011, the AHA and four partners formed Equity of Care, a national collaborative effort to eliminate health care disparities.
Delivering the right care, at the right time, in the right place. That focus is the strategy for preventing readmissions at Twin County Regional Healthcare in Galax, Va. The 141-bed rural hospital also focuses on four 鈥渕ust-haves鈥 for patient discharge: follow-up appointments, home鈥
For more information, contact Ruth Adeola, program coordinator, violence and injury prevention, at radeola@umm.edu.
The HPOE guide 'Hospital Approaches to Interrupt the Cycle of Violence' includes a model for hospital-based violence intervention programs that can reduce violence, save lives and鈥