Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
“Small changes can make a big difference.” So say health care professionals working to prevent adverse drug events at Labette Health in Parsons, Kan. The 99-bed rural hospital joined the AHA/HRET Hospital Engagement Network in 2012, working to reduce all ADEs by 40 percent by year-end…
A powerful tool for hospitals to address priority health needs of their patient population and the community at large is the community health needs assessment. A new AHA guide, “Engaging Patients and Communities in the Community Health Needs Assessment Process,” describes an eight-step…
June 5–11 is Community Health Improvement Week. The AHA's Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI) organizes this national event to raise awareness about and recognize community health professionals, organizations and coalitions for their commitment to improving the health of the…
An intervention to prevent childhood obesity has blossomed into a communitywide effort led by a local hospital. Providence St. Patrick Hospital helped launch CATCH—Coordinated Approach to Child Health—in Missoula, Mont. Based on the CDC's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model…
Using HOUDINI to eliminate CAUTI. It's all about decreasing the inappropriate use of indwelling catheters—an important step in eliminating catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Lovelace Westside Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., adopted the HOUDINI protocol to help decrease CAUTIs…
The Sunday Shoes Program is an innovative solution to help heart failure patients monitor weight gain. It was developed by the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) team at Preston Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Kingwood, WV. In 2012, the heart failure readmission rate at the…
Ten years ago, Mercy began telemedicine in its ICUs to improve patient outcomes. Today the St. Louis-based health system has opened a four-story virtual care center with an eICU that connects more than 30 ICUs in seven states, plus telestroke and e-hospitalists. The center also houses support…
Creating a quieter hospital environment can help the healing process and improve the patient experience. After St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton, Wis., made changes to reduce noise in its ED, “would you recommend” responses on patient surveys dramatically increased. Staff had…
April is National Minority Health Month. Led by the HHS Office of Minority Health, the 2016 events are centered on the theme “Accelerating Health Equity for the Nation.” The AHA offers numerous resources to help hospitals and health systems provide high-quality, patient-centered care to…
When outpatients at Summa Health in Akron, Ohio, were frequently getting lost on their way to appointments on the main hospital's campus, volunteers stepped in to help. The hospital's Volunteer Services team developed a hospital guide volunteer program—Volunteer Voyagers. This program has exceeded…