Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2024 AHA Board Chair Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, and past chairs.
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 “Cincinnati Expecting Success” project, facilitated by the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, focused on collecting…
The “second curve” of population health involves an integrated approach to improving patient and community health. Three Dignity Health hospitals in Bakersfield, California—Mercy Hospital Downtown, Mercy Hospital Southwest and Memorial Hospital—have expanded population…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Providing world-class quality health care may seem an audacious goal for a small or rural hospital. At Maury Regional Medical Center, in Columbia, Tenn., leadership, physicians and front-line staff have worked many years to do just that—provide the best possible service and outcomes for patients.…
The National Patient Safety Foundation leads Patient Safety Awareness Week in early March to promote education and awareness about safety issues in health care. Every day, the AHA and NPSF work to support the managers and front-line professionals at hospitals and care systems who work 24/7 to…
The statistics are staggering: The number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes has risen from 1.5 million in 1958 to 18.8 million in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is estimated that more than 25 million Americans have diabetes, and about 79 million adults have…
A new member of the health care team is helping to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience at a low cost. Care guides were introduced on care teams at clinics operated by Allina Health, a not-for-profit health care system with 12 hospitals and more than 90 clinics serving Minnesota and…