Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
Improving care after discharge translates to decreased readmissions. Marshall Medical Center, a 113-bed hospital in Placerville, Calif., used the AHA/HRET Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) change package driver to improve care transitions for discharged patients, reducing its readmission rate by鈥
National Hospital Week celebrates the men and women working in U.S. hospitals and care systems who are always ready to serve, care and heal. Like many U.S. hospitals and care systems, the staff at Main Line Health provides health care to a diverse patient population. The health system, which serves鈥
Today's hospital and care system leaders are addressing challenges while maximizing opportunities for transformation and innovation in the U.S. health care system. The AHA's nine-month Health Care Transformation Fellowship provides senior health care leaders with knowledge and actionable tools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 and population health. The Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence鈥
More than 20 hospitals came together with community organizations in the Cincinnati area to provide better, more equitable care and close gaps in care disparities. The 鈥淐incinnati Expecting Success鈥 project, facilitated by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, focused on collecting鈥
The 鈥渟econd curve鈥 of population health involves an integrated approach to improving patient and community health. Three Dignity Health hospitals in Bakersfield, California鈥擬ercy Hospital Downtown, Mercy Hospital Southwest and Memorial Hospital鈥攈ave expanded population鈥
The health care field leaves a large environmental footprint, but hospitals and health care systems like Memorial Hermann Health System in southeast Texas are working to change that. In 2006, when the health care system began tracking energy use at its facilities, it discovered its newest buildings鈥
The winds of change in health care are swirling around us: shifting patient and workforce demographics, evolving payment models, varying political and regulatory pressures, and fluctuating economic conditions. These challenges call for hospitals and health care systems to accelerate organizational鈥
Rooftop gardens are flourishing atop more and more hospitals. On unused roof space at Castle Medical Center, a 160-bed urban hospital in Kailua, Hawaii, a garden of greens and crops provides about 60 percent of the fresh produce served for patient meals and in the hospital's cafeteria. Rooftop farm鈥
One in four Americans experiences a behavioral health illness or substance abuse disorder each year. The majority of those individuals have a comorbid physical health condition and may enter care without having their underlying behavioral health disorder addressed. A recent Hospitals in Pursuit of鈥