Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
Does your hospital huddle? Staff in the medical-surgical unit at Fairbanks (AK) Memorial Hospital is implementing huddles and other strategies to reduce falls among inpatients. Unit staff determined that a huddle called immediately after a patient falls is crucial for learning and helping to鈥
Today we need leaders who can help address the challenges and maximize the tremendous opportunities for transformation and innovation in the U.S. health care system. AHA's intensive interactive Health Care Transformation Fellowship provides senior health care leaders with the implementation鈥
From flexible visiting hours to family-centered rounds, hospitals are encouraging patients and families to become involved in their care. A new report from the AHA Committee on Research 鈥淓ngaging Health Care Users: A Framework for Healthy Individuals and Communities鈥 presents a鈥
Central line-associated bloodstream infections cause serious illness and death. Front-line caregivers in 100 neonatal intensive care units in nine states鈥攃aring for 8,400 newborn patients鈥攗sed prevention practice checklists and improved communication to prevent an estimated 131 CLABSIs鈥
Imagine being hospitalized for a serious illness and being unable to communicate with nurses or doctors because you did not speak their language and could not read your own language. Add to that: having no insurance and no clue what the diagnosis meant. About 10 years ago, a Mexican immigrant was鈥
Year after year, America's hospitals respond to meet pressing community health care needs. In 2008 after the closing of a local health center which had treated large numbers of refugees, Rochester (N.Y.) General Health System (RGHS) created the Refugee Healthcare Program the same year. RGHS鈥
During 2012, despite economic challenges, hospitals and health care systems throughout the United States delivered safe, effective, equitable and high-quality care and put patients first. For example, Billings Clinic in Billings, MT, partnered with another local hospital and the public health鈥
43,750: That's the number of fall injuries the CMS Partnership for Patients campaign estimates would be prevented over three years if hospitals cut preventable fall injuries by 50% in 2013. Essentia Health in Fargo, N.D., aims to decrease preventable falls in its cardiac telemetry unit by 25% by鈥
What a difference three years of focusing on performance improvement can make! In 2009, metrics at Research Psychiatric Center in Kansas City, Mo., showed high rates for falls and use of restraints and low rates for employee and patient satisfaction. RPC adopted the Baldrige performance excellence鈥
One successful initiative can lead to another. A 鈥渘urse transitionist鈥 program at Western Maryland Regional Medical Center, a 275-bed hospital in Cumberland, MD, has contributed to a reduction in readmissions. This program and several other initiatives have helped WMRMC decrease鈥