Chairperson's File

2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker headshot.

Blog posts from 2025 AHA Board Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health, and past chairs.

n 2013, San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center, Conejos County Hospital and five clinics officially became one entity: San Luis Valley Health. This rural health care system, based in Alamosa, Colo., is now fully focused on engaging community stakeholders and working together to craft a long-term…
Learning, sharing resources and discussing projects on cutting-edge topics in health care transformation: That's the opportunity for a select group of leaders who participate in the AHA Health Care Transformation Fellowship. During the nine-month program, fellows meet for three two-day interactive…
“Mobility is medicine,” say clinicians and volunteers working together to improve patient care at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. The 867-bed hospital has created a patient-centered, cost-effective patient mobility program with volunteers. The goals: increase patient mobilization to prevent…
The Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence guide “Partnering to Improve Quality and Safety: A Framework for Working with Patient and Family Advisors” provides information and best practices for hospital and care system leaders: whom to recruit as advisors, how to prepare patient and family advisors and…
April is National Minority Health Month. In 2011, the AHA and four partners formed Equity of Care, a national collaborative effort to eliminate health care disparities.
Delivering the right care, at the right time, in the right place. That focus is the strategy for preventing readmissions at Twin County Regional Healthcare in Galax, Va. The 141-bed rural hospital also focuses on four “must-haves” for patient discharge: follow-up appointments, home…
For more information, contact Ruth Adeola, program coordinator, violence and injury prevention, at radeola@umm.edu. The HPOE guide 'Hospital Approaches to Interrupt the Cycle of Violence' includes a model for hospital-based violence intervention programs that can reduce violence, save lives and…
The only acceptable number of avoidable patient harms is zero. At Ponca City (Okla.) Medical Center, all hospital staff are working to achieve 100% of patient safety goals. The 140-bed hospital has used best practices and tools from its participation in the AHA/HRET Hospital Engagement Network.…
Building a culture of health means ensuring all people have the opportunity to live productive, healthier lives. Hospitals and health care systems have an important role in this work. Key for hospitals is conducting a community health needs assessment to pinpoint community priorities and identify…
Working toward the Triple Aim of better care, better health and lower cost means achieving the goal for all patients. A new resource, Equity of Care: A Toolkit for Eliminating Health Care Disparities, gathers best practices in one place. This toolkit outlines a framework for improving quality of…