Chairperson's File
Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.
The Chairman's File columns provide just a glimpse of the excellent work that our nation's hospitals and health systems are doing. In 2015, it's been my privilege to serve as AHA board chair and share these inspiring stories about improving all dimensions of care. System transformation requires…
Mission accomplished, but the work continues. At Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, La., a Lean Six Sigma workgroup set a goal to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections by 20% in 2014. A multidisciplinary team of physicians and staff from across the medical…
More and more hospitals and health systems are leading community collaborations to create positive, healthy experiences for young people. In La Crosse, Wisc., Gundersen Health System has been collaborating with the YMCA Community Teen Center for seven years. This safe drop-in center—free of…
Join more than 900 hospitals and health systems and 30 state and metropolitan hospital associations and take action to eliminate health care disparities.
Charleston Area Medical Center Health System is a 2015 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award—the only health care organization among this year's winners. Four hospitals are part of CAMC, which is the largest nonprofit hospital system in West Virginia, as well as the third…
Leadership, innovation and commitment to quality and safety—all are needed to deliver exceptional patient care. Each year, the AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize recognizes hospitals that embody these attributes and are systematically committed to achieving the Institute of Medicine's six…
Overcoming language barriers with patients improves communication, a critical element of safety and quality. To reduce medical errors and improve patient safety, Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Tenn., has bolstered its language services program. The health system focused on increasing staff…
Hospitals and health systems are focusing on cultural competence to create an environment and workforce that delivers the highest quality care to every patient regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, or language proficiency. In a recent HPOE webinar, the 2015 AHA Equity of Care Award finalists…
Each year more than one million patients in the United States are diagnosed with sepsis, a condition that has a 28% to 50% mortality rate and is quite costly to treat. Kennedy Health, an integrated health delivery system in New Jersey, has developed a systemwide approach to improve sepsis care and…
In accord with their commitment to equity of care and leadership diversity, hospitals and health systems are focusing on supplier diversity. In 2014, CHRISTUS Health, a Catholic, not-for-profit health system with services in six U.S. states, Mexico and Chile, created a Diversity Supplier Council.…