AHA Stat Blog

Expanding access to telehealth services to provide much more patient-centered, convenient care. Creating additional health care workforce capacity and avoiding workforce shortages. Removing barriers for patients and communities to access needed care.

As front-line health care workers move beyond the immediate pandemic crisis, now is the time to reflect on the psychological toll, writes Jesse Burgard, a regional chief mental health officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and AHA Behavioral Health Services Council member. Read more in this blog marking PTSD Awareness month.

Among the many lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the critical importance of leadership.

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations spiking in a number of states, hospitals and health systems — and the women and men on the front lines — continue to battle the virus. At the same time, hospitals continue to confront the greatest financial crisis in their history, as our recent report estimates more than $200 billion in losses from COVID-19 from March through June.

Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. A lot goes through your mind when you stand or kneel in silence for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. You think about justice and injustice. About despair and struggle.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life in ways we never expected. For patients across the country, the cancellation or postponement of non-emergent surgeries, clinic visits and procedures delayed important medical care and financially devastated many hospitals and health systems, even threatening the ability of many to keep their doors open.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world. For hospitals and health systems this meant canceling non-emergent surgeries and other services – many of which are often for care that is potentially life-saving, necessary to alleviate pain and suffering, or to restore individuals to full health. 

While COVID-19 has impacted routine medical visits and non-emergency procedures, people are still giving birth and in need of support. Across the country, hospitals and health systems are implementing COVID-19 response plans that are shaping birth plans and experiences for expectant mothers and their families.

Any way you cut it, this has been a very tough few weeks in our country. We have witnessed a colorful tapestry of Americans voicing loud opposition to the systemic injustices and institutional racism. We’re also seeing centuries’ worth of wounds being opened and spilling into our streets — and tragically into our emergency departments — here in the greater Kansas City metro and in cities of every size coast-to-coast.

June 5 is the fourth annual Hospitals Against Violence Hope (#HAVhope) Friday.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack writes a letter to the editor in response to “Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers,” May 26.

The Census Bureau recently reported that “a third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also been reported that Americans are increasingly at risk for “deaths of despair” from substance misuse and suicide, forecasting that the mental health crisis could approach levels of loss similar to COVID-19.

Much of the response to COVID-19 crisis has fallen on America’s hospitals and health systems — the cornerstones of care in their communities — and the front-line health care heroes.

Stepping back from pandemic coverage can reduce health care worker burnout, writes Jeremy Sadlier, director of HR Initiatives at the American Society for Health Care Human Resources Administration. Read more about utilizing HR services and how to de-stress.

The AHA is working hard to achieve health equity by working with the government to improve data collection to guide policy, and by creating tools and resources to help hospitals and health systems improve health equity in the community.

Marking Mental Health Awareness Month, Robyn Begley, CEO of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, writes that health care workers already faced burnout, addiction and suicide before COVID-19, and it’s important to tackle these issues now.

Our just-concluded National Hospital Week provided many great opportunities to express our heartfelt thanks to the remarkable caregivers who continue to minister to COVID-19 patients—and all patients who come through our hospital and health system doors—every day in every community across America.

National Hospital Week 2020 may be coming to a close tomorrow, but our efforts to support America’s health care heroes and their hospitals and health systems are still going strong.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Bruce Bailey, president and CEO of Tidelands Health based in Georgetown, S.C., talks about how hospitals and health systems without inpatient behavioral health services or onsite mental health clinicians can still address the needs of these patients.

This year, National Hospital Week (May 10-16) takes on a special significance. For months, we have watched with awe and gratitude as the 6 million women and men of America’s hospitals and health systems have fought courageously each and every day to protect the health of an entire nation.