Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
Managing population health, financial planning for value-based care and payment, and leading improvement across the care continuum are among the topics highlighted in the 2014 edition of Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence: A Compendium of Action Guides. The compendium is a collection of action-鈥
It is estimated that 25 percent of falls by hospital patients are preventable. Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, a 380-bed hospital in Boise, Idaho, launched an initiative to reduce falls by half in one calendar year. Led by the hospital's nursing quality and safety coordinator, the project鈥
A national leader in health care equity, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has developed successful initiatives to promote diversity, improve quality, address disparities and achieve equity.
Small tests of change can give hospitals momentum and show early progress in improvement projects. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, a 172-bed hospital in Covington, La., focused on collaborating, improving coordination and conducting small tests of change to reduce its 30-day readmissions rate.
Improving patient safety, leading multiple improvement efforts and moving to value-based care: The AHA's Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative supports hospitals' and health care systems' efforts in these areas with resources created to accelerate performance and quality improvement and鈥
Whether cheering for soccer, tennis, baseball, softball or another sport, fans no doubt have witnessed the robust and disciplined preparation of star athletes in their field. Using a disciplined and robust financial planning process can guide hospitals and care systems navigating the challenging鈥
Here's the promising news: About 95 percent of hospitals and health care systems collect data on patients' race, ethnicity and primary language. The not-so-good news is only 22 percent of hospitals and systems are using that data to identify disparities in treatment or outcomes between racial or鈥
Improving population health is a must-do strategy in transforming health care delivery. Yale New Haven Health System, based in New Haven, Conn., has progressed quickly to improve population health management, developing data-driven interventions. The health system conducts a community health needs鈥
Hospitals and health care systems can support their missions and also many additional benefits by tapping into the power of environmental sustainability. Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, a 178-bed hospital in Dover, N.H., completed a series of sustainability projects that have brought significant鈥
Transition coaches may be the 鈥済lue鈥 between hospital visits and primary care. So says Julie Cann-Taylor, COO of Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. The 191-bed rural hospital participates in a statewide collaborative to improve care transitions and has five transition coaches who assist鈥