AHA Names 2024 Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award Winner and Finalists

WASHINGTON (February 18, 2025) – The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced the team from Columbia Memorial Hospital (CMH), a critical access hospital (CAH) in Astoria, Ore., as the 2024 recipient of the Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award. The award recognizes rural hospital leaders who guide their hospital and community through change and innovation. The honorees display outstanding leadership, responsiveness to their community’s health needs and a collaborative process that has led to measurable outcomes. The award will be presented at the 38th annual AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, which will be held Feb. 23-26 in San Antonio.  

CMH provides a broad range of specialty services to a population size of more than 41,000, in addition to providing care for some of the over 125,000 tourists visiting Oregon’s North Coast annually. In 2010, CMH established a clinical collaboration with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to enhance access to specialty care within the community. In 2017, the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative, a state-of-the-art cancer treatment center, opened in Astoria, offering medical and radiation oncology services. The Cancer Center saves local patients more than 80,000 miles and 1,600 hours of drive time each year. Through the years, the relationship with OHSU has grown, bringing much-needed services like cardiology, cancer care, endocrinology and pulmonology to the region. 

In October 2024, CMH broke ground on the BuildCMH Expansion Project, a 180,000-square-foot hospital expansion. The four-year capital improvement project will expand hospital service lines, attract new providers and provide the latest technology to address community health needs. The new facility is being constructed with disaster resiliency in mind, including a Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Refuge Structure to offer a safe evacuation space to community members and caregivers, as well as a rooftop helipad and emergency operations center.    

The AHA Rural Hospital Leadership Award also recognized as finalists the teams at Atrium Health Lincoln in Lincoln, N.C.; Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Ind.; and Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma, Wash.

Atrium Health Lincoln’s (AHL) innovative use of telemedicine brings across-the-spectrum care to underserved communities through virtual health programs. The school-based virtual therapy program serves over 2,000 students and facilitated approximately 18,000 therapy visits in 2023, resulting in over 30% improvement in depressive and anxiety symptoms among participants. Leveraging a virtual platform for care creates increased accessibility resulting in a 10% increase in family therapy engagement. The program has since expanded beyond Lincoln County and now operates in 11 counties and 204 schools, making it the largest school-based virtual therapy program in the Southeast. AHL’s school-based virtual care model includes virtual therapy and telemedicine appointments. These services provide care to students without their parents having to sacrifice leave from work for a therapy or medical visit. Instead, the parent, student and provider (and an interpreter, if needed) meet virtually and use digital diagnostic devices to assess the student and provide treatment. For telemedical appointments, 69% of students are able to return to class immediately after their appointment, avoiding absenteeism and maximizing critical learning time. Other telemedicine innovations include tele-neurology, which enhances stroke care and education; virtual critical care; and virtual school-based psychiatry.  

Schneck Medical Center (SMC) is the only hospital facility in rural Jackson County and is a trusted provider of services across the care continuum. Founded in 1911 as a 17-bed hospital, Schneck now comprises more than 1,200 employees, 125 volunteers and nearly 200 providers. Jackson County has a high rate of chronic conditions and poverty, with 31% of the adult population living below 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL). To address these factors, Schneck is the backbone organization for the Healthy Jackson County coalition, highlighting the impact of collaboration in the reduction of chronic disease. Schneck also spearheads and supports programs fighting food insecurity; addressing the specific needs of the area’s Latino population; and bringing care to those with mental health and substance use disorders.  

Summit Pacific Medical Center (SPMC) is a critical access hospital serving Grays Harbor County and has a bold vision of building the healthiest community in the country. SPMC is being recognized for its innovative approach to addressing the region’s significant health challenges, including high rates of chronic disease, economic hardship and poor health factors. Through its Low Barrier Behavioral and Primary Care Clinic, SPMC provides integrated behavioral health, medication-assisted treatment and walk-in services to underserved populations facing barriers to care. Additionally, the hospital’s newly accredited Rural Family Medicine Residency Program has added more than 3,000 patient visits each year. SPMC’s commitment to community health extends to its Food as Medicine (Rx) Program, which offers education through a nutritionist, cooking classes and weekly food subscription boxes to combat high rates of diabetes and poor dietary habits. Since its launch, the program has contributed to a 6.2% reduction in hemoglobin A1C levels and a nearly 20% decrease in LDL cholesterol for the members who participate. Through these initiatives, SPMC continues to drive meaningful improvements in health outcomes, reinforcing its role as a leader in rural health care innovation.

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About the American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (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 advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and 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.