AHA Honors Two Exemplary Health Systems For Their Dedication and Commitment to Quality

WASHINGTON (July 15, 2025) — The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Hartford HealthCare in Hartford, Conn., is the 2025 recipient of the AHA Quest for Quality Prize. CommonSpirit Health in Chicago has been named a finalist. The winners will receive this prestigious recognition during the AHA’s Leadership Summit in Nashville, July 20-22.

The AHA Quest for Quality Prize is presented annually to recognize exceptional health care leadership and innovation in improving quality and advancing health in America’s communities. The AHA Quest for Quality Prize was first awarded in 2002.

“This year’s winners of the AHA’s Quest for Quality are role models for excellence in patient care for the entire hospital field,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “They have demonstrated a deep dedication to creating a culture enabling quality practices to flourish while connecting with their communities through new approaches, techniques and technologies.”

Prize Winner: Hartford HealthCare — Hartford, Conn.

Hartford HealthCare is a nonprofit health system composed of eight hospitals in urban, suburban and rural areas as well as 445 ambulatory clinics, 78 outpatient care centers, three outpatient behavioral health care sites and several other facilities that in total serve 2.2 million outpatient visits annually. The recognition comes as a result of Hartford HealthCare’s sweeping transformation over the past decade — one that reflects a deep cultural shift toward continuous improvement, patient safety, health equity and system-wide innovation.

Hartford HealthCare’s mantra, “the best at getting better,” is evident in the entire health care system’s unwavering commitment to excellence in health care, emphasis on teamwork, high-reliability training and a deeply ingrained quality methodology. Hartford HealthCare demonstrates strong leadership involvement in quality through a series of impactful programs reinforcing a culture of safety, accountability and patient-centered care. Every leadership meeting begins with a patient’s story that shapes systemwide learnings. The “Safety Starts with Me” messaging and the prominent “You Are Not Alone” signage serve as visible reminders of the health system’s goal to ensure that every individual — whether a patient, team member or visitor — feels supported and empowered.

Hartford HealthCare has successfully embedded a culture of continuous improvement at every level of the organization, making learning and innovation central to its mission. A strong commitment to Lean methodology ensures that every employee, regardless of role, has the tools and training necessary to drive outcome-based goals and actively contribute to process improvement.

The system’s efforts have led to impressive accomplishments such as a 70% reduction in health care-acquired infections from 2015 to 2023. Additionally, team members showed a 48% increase in reporting potential safety events from 2021 to 2023, a testament to Hartford HealthCare’s positive safety culture.

Finalist: CommonSpirit Health — Chicago

CommonSpirit Health comprises 157 hospitals, including acute, critical access, academic medical centers and specialty hospitals. Its network spans 24 states, offering care at more than 2,200 sites including ambulatory clinics, long-term care facilities, home health agencies, urgent care centers and surgical centers. This nonprofit health system delivers more than 20 million outpatient visits a year.

CommonSpirit Health is deeply committed to being a high-performing organization as evident by mission-driven leadership, well-executed systemwide governance structure, dedication to community partnerships, and a culture of patient-centered care and continuous improvement. Patient and family involvement is encouraged in designing the total care experience, including initiatives to meet special physical, psychological, development, cultural and spiritual needs.

CommonSpirit Health fosters a culture welcoming and incentivizing innovation from any staff member such as ideas to effectively implement advanced analytics or strategies for improving communication with patients and care givers.

When a system-level quality or safety priority is identified, CommonSpirit uses an eight-step process to cascade changes throughout all of its hospitals. The process has been used on nearly 20 metrics to elevate system performance to the top third or better of the national median. For example, when leaders in CommonSpirit’s Pacific Northwest region saw success with artificial intelligence-enabled tools that notify a provider — before a patient visit — which cancer screenings should be ordered, CommonSpirit began rolling out the technology across the system. When an opportunity is identified where no national benchmark exists, CommonSpirit leverages its size to develop internal benchmarks — an approach that improved maternal health outcomes by analyzing systemwide data and implementing solutions resulting in demonstrable achievements related to hypertension and eclampsia.

The AHA Quest for Quality prize is sponsored by Laerdal Medical, a global leader in health care simulation. Laerdal partners with hospital organizations to help improve individual clinical skills and team performance through immersive educational experiences. Incorporating Analytic Insight to identify areas of opportunity and identify potential latent patient safety threats, Laerdal works with clinicians across the care continuum. 

###

About the AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.