Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
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
Increasing patient adherence to medications? Check. Providing safe, patient-centered care? Check. Improving transitions of care? Check.
Involving everyone from front-line staff to executive committees to home health agencies to patients' families, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta significantly reduced infections among its pediatric patients. The campaign started at the 529-bed health care organization in 2006 with the goal to鈥
'Commitment to caring' and 'quality improvement' and'patient engagement' are more than catchphrases at UNC Hospitals. They are embedded in the culture at the 804-bed academic center in Chapel Hill, N.C. For example, Commitment to Caring teams identify opportunities and follow up with plans to鈥