Telling the Hospital Story

Patients and communities rely on the wide range of critical health care services that only hospitals and health systems can provide, including 24/7 emergency and other higher-acuity care. Hospitals also work with their community partners to develop and deploy programs that advance health and wellness. 

Hospitals and health care workers have stood strong for their communities, and they have a vital role in our society to keep communities healthy.

Hospitals and health systems can help tell their story by sharing messages on social media using graphics and other resources from AHA's online toolkit.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

  • Share your stories with AHA: AHA wants to help elevate the impactful work you do in your community. Please consider submitting examples of the many ways your hospital/health system benefits your community via this form.
     
  • Share your pandemic experiences: Are you a caregiver that has worked through the COVID-19 pandemic? If you are willing to share your important perspective, please consider joining your fellow health care employees who have shared their experiences during the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic #WeAreHealthcare initiative. If interested please email AHA for more information.
     
  • Identify a hospital ambassador: AHA is working to amplify the field’s collective voice by creating a group of hospital and health system ambassadors to tell their hospital story through op-eds, audio news releases and other AHA-supported media opportunities. Sign up for more information about how your hospital can join us in balancing the narrative with a stronger chorus of hospital examples and voices. If interested please add an ambassador via this form.
     
  • Deploy your social media channels: Tag the @AHAhospitals, and use the hashtag #myhospital so we can send a collective message about the work you do on behalf of patients and communities. Hospitals and health systems can help tell their story by sharing messages on social media using new graphics and other resources from the "#WeAreHealthCare" digital toolkit
     
  • Customizable social graphics: AHA developed customizable graphics and a national infographic that allows you to share your hospital's story. Share how your hospital and health care workers are a vital service to the community. Customize the graphics for your hospitals Instagram, Instagram Story, and for Twitter.
     

Setting the Record Straight

On important issues that affect hospitals, health systems and patients.

 

AHA Members Only Resources

View key AHA member-only advisories and resources that illustrate the crucial role hospitals and health systems play in their communities.

Find Resources

 

Tell us how hospitals have provided care and supported health in your community throughout the pandemic.

Share Your Hospital Story


Spotlight on Hospitals

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Rendering of new facilty includes buildings and parking lot

This summer, Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend, Wash., is modernizing their campus to continue meeting the growing needs of their community.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Poster of cancer patient with superimposed text: Community partnerships provide vital resources fo patients and families in need of extra support throughout their cancer journey. In 2022 we were proud to be a part of 25 community events.

Located inside Providence Portland Medical Center, the Providence Cancer Institute of Oregon collaborates with community partners to end cancer disparities and improve community health. Providence nurse navigators and oncology social workers work closely with patients who may have difficulty accessing the services they need, and educational materials are patient-friendly and available in several languages.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Bienvenidos a Fuerza Unida

The University of Texas Health System at San Antonio supports training for 275 new community health workers in South Texas to help improve access to health care services for historically marginalized communities.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Closeup of black patient's arm with blood pressure cuff

Indiana hospitals and health systems are working together to develop centralized equity reports that allow the providers to compare quality outcomes across different demographic groups. By working together, the hospitals are increasing access to preventive care and customizing the patient experience to improve health outcomes and ensure all people get the health care they need.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Woman in button up shirt signs in ASL

Through collaborative community efforts, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical has improved access to quality care for the deaf and hard of hearing community. The heath system offers a wide range of services, including video remote interpreting, childbirth and related health education taught using American Sign Language, and annual training for team members on awareness of cultural and language differences.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Drive-through health fair poster

Charleston Area Medical Center offers people in every life stage – from infants to patients 65 and older, easy access to basic health services through drive-thru health fairs. The idea is if people can’t make it to the health provider, the health provider is coming to them. It’s a new model that is working not only in West Virginia, but across the country.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

ASSIST Neighbors helping neighbors

In Montana’s northwest Flathead Valley, it is not uncommon for residents to have to travel over 30 miles away to the closest hospital. Logan Health’s ASSIST program uses trained volunteers to help local residents access and navigate essential health services and social services, addressing key social determinants of health.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Nurses flank seated patient and baby

As hospitals face financial strains, staffing shortages and other difficult conditions fueled by the pandemic, Princeton Baptist is not only keeping the lights on but going the extra mile to make sure pregnant women and their babies are getting the best care possible. The hospital offers a full range of maternity and women health services, including delivery, gynecology and a neonatal intensive care unit, in a highly personalized and supportive way.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Sanford Native American Community Outreach logo

The Native American Community Outreach initiative at Sanford Health is addressing health disparities and improving health care for Native Americans in the health system’s North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota communities. Focus is on collaborating with tribal leaders about health issues that matter to their communities and workforce development.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

St. Anthony staff take photo with patient and baby

Improving access and quality of maternal and infant services in rural Iowa through a regional center of excellence.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

North Mississippi Health Services Booth

North Mississippi Health Services has partnered with the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association to improve community health and wellness at the Tupelo Farmers’ Depot.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

Patient room at a doctor's office with a reclining bed chair, rolling chair, counter with sink, hazard waste basket, and door for entry/exit.

Big city and rural hospitals partner to address critical community health needs. The goal of the partnership is to improve access to care and keep specialty resources close to home.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

The MetroHealth System new health center built in Cleveland’s near West Side neighborhood.

Titus Regional Medical Center, the last independent hospital in Northeast Texas, serves rural counties stretching along the Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana borders. TRMC battled through five surges of COVID in the past 24 months. But despite having the highest COVID rates per 100,000 in the 27 counties of Northeast Texas, the health system was able to navigate the needs of local residents, saving many lives and ranking as having the lowest mortality rate of any county in the area.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

The MetroHealth System new health center built in Cleveland’s near West Side neighborhood.

Denver Health has long supported LGBTQ+ patients by providing them with a safe place to go to get their health care. Through a wide range of LGBTQ+ health services, the hospital makes sure that every LGBTQ+ person is met with open, welcoming, safe and affirming care from a team of LGBTQ+ friendly doctors and staff.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

The MetroHealth System new health center built in Cleveland’s near West Side neighborhood.

Opened June 2020, the Cletus Jeckering Family Center of Care – Ohio City Health Center offers health services to the school’s nearly 700 students, as well as their families and the entire community.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

ChristianaCare Brings Quality Health Care to Students. Students wearing masks from Kuumba Academy Charter School cut the blue ribbon to open their new health center.

As a result of this initial work, Allina Health discovered that colorectal cancer screening rates among the health system’s Blacks and African Americans were extremely low compared to other patient populations. The problem: low-literate individuals and culturally diverse individuals with limited English proficiency faced great difficulties in understanding health information and navigating the health care system.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

ChristianaCare Brings Quality Health Care to Students. Students wearing masks from Kuumba Academy Charter School cut the blue ribbon to open their new health center.

ChristianaCare has teamed up with Kuumba Academy Charter School in Wilmington, Delaware, to establish a new student-based health center that will provide onsite preventive care, mental health care and acute care services for all 637 Kuumba Academy students. It’s just one of more than 20 student-based health centers already supported by the health system. The student-based health center is staffed by nurses and doctors who provide a range of services to meet kids' and teens' health care needs. Services can include checkups, lab tests, prescriptions, counseling and care for chronic illnesses, such as asthma and diabetes.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

A nurse assists a boy and his mother who are talking with a doctor via a telehealth system at MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina.

MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina, has developed a school-based telehealth program that contributes to improved health outcomes for children in many rural and underserved communities across the state. Data points to the program’s efficiency and effectiveness in improving health care access. For kids, the “cool” factor makes telehealth fun too.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

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Through Ascension’s Medical Mission at Home events, the health system delivers free medical care to those with limited access and who are struggling in the communities they serve. The program provides real-time delivery of organized health and social services to those who would not have access to care with follow-up care and continuity as needed. These free community health events give low-income and uninsured populations access to needed health services.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

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The Novant Health UVA Health System mobile mammography unit is a motorized coach that brings a mammography machine to where you live, work, and attend civic activities and faith-based services. Our goal is to ensure all women have access to high-quality breast health services, regardless of ability to pay or travel to a full-service imaging center.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

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Holy Cross Health knows thousands of men, women and children in their region have no health insurance and few resources to obtain ongoing health services. They have established community benefit programs to help residents obtain the care needed to maintain a healthy life and to give families a healthy start, with services including: health centers that provide patients with a medical home to access primary care; OB/GYN clinics to support women before, during and after the birth of a baby; and financial assistance programs and counselors to help reduce the financial burden that health care can have on vulnerable families.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

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Quality, accessible and affordable health care is critically important for a child’s physical and mental health, which is why Stanford Children’s is committed to improving access to primary care for children, teens and expectant mothers through transportation to medical treatment, pediatric care, education, counseling, legal advocacy and more.

Ensuring Equitable Access to Care

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Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJC) invests millions of dollars and many volunteer hours in the St. Louis community each year, and the impact can be seen in the thousands of people whose lives are better today as a result. Throughout the pandemic, the need for community benefit programs and services endured. COVID-19 was not the only illness at hand, and patients still faced financial hardships to deal with unexpected or overwhelming medical events. BJC patients with a demonstrated financial need received more than $459.1 million in charity care or other financial assistance in 2020.

Benefiting Communities

End the Violence toolkit website image

In Spokane, Wash., Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center is partnering with the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition to provide a toolkit for comprehensive workplace training program for businesses and nonprofits to access online, with in-person training or a combination of those two.

Benefiting Communities

female physician and female executive have walking meeting in hospital atrium

Five female leaders at Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health all started their careers tending to patients at the bedside. Today, they occupy top rungs in the health care leadership ladder.

Benefiting Communities

pregnant women talking to a counselor or doula

In the doula program at Swedish Hospital, doulas aim to create an empowered, patient-centered experience, informed by Swedish’s “culture work” and enhanced through collaborative exercises like emergency simulations.

Benefiting Communities

student writing exam at desk

A group of Fontana, Calif. high school seniors interested in the health care profession recently explored career paths at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center through Kaiser Permanente’s internship program.

Benefiting Communities

Black mother cradling newborn

In honor of National Reading Month, Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, California, has gifted every baby born there in the month of March a book to help inspire a love of reading.

Benefiting Communities

Black businessman reviewing paperwork with colleague

One of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, Mount Sinai Health System’s new Growth in Operations, Administrations, and Leadership Society (GOALS) program was created to increase the representation of Black men at the middle and upper levels of management within Mount Sinai.

Benefiting Communities

Conference room full of people sit watching a speaker from the community

To address the many challenging social, health and environmental issues that its communities face, Sinai Chicago has developed community-based health and social service programs that are serving thousands of individuals and families. The health system also has partnered with local organizations and the city of Chicago to invest in affordable housing and economic redevelopment in the city’s North Lawndale neighborhood.

Benefiting Communities

Health care workers in PPE stand with snacks. Text overlay: Punahou School

When children are hospitalized during the holidays, a simple gift of a toy, book or game helps to brighten their day. Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children knows that play is an important part of the healing process and hosts an annual Santa’s Workshop toy drive so that every hospitalized child receives a gift during the holidays. Donations provide comfort to the patients and their families and offer distractions from the challenges they face.

Benefiting Communities

Health care worker stands with patient starting at glowing screen

Natchitoches Regional Medical Center makes community health improvements a top priority, supported by an economic impact budget of $184M and strong community partnerships.

Benefiting Communities

Mon Pathways to Success poster

The Mon Pathways to Success program is working to empower positive systemic change that improves the health and lives individuals in the community of Morgantown, W.V. This program provides education and training, reliable transportation, health benefits and more to participants who are living in shelters or have lost their job due to COVID-19.

Benefiting Communities

Children's National exterior sign

Children’s National Hospital knows that no one deserves to experience violence, especially the youngest among us and opens up its first youth violence intervention program. Services include physical and emotional treatment, community support groups and safe housing.

Benefiting Communities

health fair

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed Eastern New Mexico Medical Center from a “pandemic hospital” to a regional hospital that can play a lead role in coordinating patient care among hospitals in the area, according to its CEO. ENMMC’s 2021 community benefit report highlights its work during the COVID-19 pandemic; its support to the community through charitable contributions and as a local employer; and its joint efforts with a local university and college to educate and train students as clinicians and other health care professionals.

Benefiting Communities

High schools tudents hired in the blitz.

AtlantiCare hosts a High School Hiring Blitz and offers jobs to more than 30 high school seniors. It’s a new approach to fill the talent gap in health care by creating programs that build a long-term pipeline of prospective employees.

Benefiting Communities

Young black man sits facing viewer, listening to person in suit jacket facing away from viewer.

A unique intervention and mentoring program at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital uses a public health approach to provide equitable, trauma-informed care to patients and families impacted by violence.

Benefiting Communities

Woman with long hair holding her baby close to her chest

In June 2022, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center partnered with Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast to open a donor milk depot in Bangor, Maine, bringing the number of milk banks in the state to seven. These milk banks rely on donated breast milk, which is tested, pasteurized and then given to infants in need of a nutritional boost.

Benefiting Communities

View of the NorthShore hospital from the outside facing the entrance of the building.

NorthShore University Health System is making its most significant investment in health equity yet. The health system is taking action to address health disparities across the communities it serves by enlisting and mobilizing capable leaders, a diversified workforce and the right community partners.

Benefiting Communities

Man standing on podium and speaking through microphone. Behind him is the American flag and a poster board featuring the Gerrard County Lions High School Logo and name. To the right of man on the podium is another man sitting down in a table listening.

UK HealthCare has created a unique partnership with Bluegrass Community & Technical College (BCTC) and school districts in the state to support students interested in a health care career and increase interest in the health care field.

Benefiting Communities

Samaritan Health Services. People at a celebration with boxed lunches and other food.

The health system, based in Corvallis, Oregon, collaborates with local organizations to serve people who need health care, regardless of their circumstances, and to keep them healthy once they leave the hospital and health care facilities.

Benefiting Communities

Luminis Health. Living Healthier Together.

Luminis Health’s Vision 2030 Living Healthier Together, a 10-year strategic plan, focuses on community, wellness and experience, not just illness and treatment.

Benefiting Communities

Man in dress shirt and tie is presenting a facility to three individuals. They are all wearing masks.

Transforming conversations into sustainable partnerships that are having a positive impact on the health of people living in the city’s neighborhoods. One initiative to help strengthen local communities is through a partnership between Cleveland Clinic and Evergreen Cooperative Laundry.

Benefiting Communities

UMass Memorial Prioritizes ‘Anchor Mission’ Work in Its Community. Clinicians from UMass Memorial stand on the steps of their mobile medical and dental clinic.

Addressing the social drivers that influence health is a strategic imperative at UMass Memorial Medical Center, the four-campus academic medical center that’s part of the larger health system of the same name. The medical center — the largest safety net hospital in Massachusetts outside of Boston — is located in Worcester, which has a high poverty rate and the poor health outcomes and barriers to accessing health care that come with it.

Benefiting Communities

Texas Health Resources. An adult helps a group of children plant a garden.

When the community needed it most during the pandemic, Texas Health Resources, located in Arlington, Texas, reallocated $5.2 million in grants to address hunger, housing and other social needs in the communities it serves — when individuals and families needed it most. The financial move was made in response to the economic consequences caused by COVID-19, which exacerbated the disparities in health outcomes for marginalized people, including low income families and older adults.

Benefiting Communities

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As an anchor institution, University Hospitals (UH) is in a unique position to influence population health and advance economic opportunities for their communities. They have made great strides in contributing to the health and welfare of Northeast Ohioans as well as addressing social determinants of health. UH provided $3.24 billion over the past decade in community benefit through the deployment of targeted programs and initiatives, including $483 million in 2020 alone.

Benefiting Communities

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Cincinnati Children’s values it’s partnerships in all the communities it serves, and in particular Avondale, the place they call home. They are making investments and connecting with Avondale neighbors in meaningful ways through a primary focus areas to reduce infant mortality and prematurity, improve kindergarten readiness and third-grade reading and improve the community’s health.

Benefiting Communities

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Silver Cross Hospital has been committed to taking care of those in need of healthcare. Every day, the hospital tries to fulfil the promise to treat all patients The Way They Should Be Treated while continuing to provide added benefits to the communities they serve. They do this in many ways including community partnerships, education, volunteerism, donations and subsidizing much-needed programs and services.

Benefiting Communities

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Northridge Hospital is dedicated to improving community health and delivering community health benefits through engagement in specific programs and services designed to address identified significant community health needs including:

  • homelessness and affordable housing
  • obesity
  • mental health
  • substance use
  • diabetes and other chronic disease wellness
  • child and adult violence prevention
  • COVID-19 community support

Benefiting Communities

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Virginia’s hospitals and health systems provided more $3.1 billion in community benefit and other types of community support in the Commonwealth in 2020, in addition to accounting for $45 billion in positive economic impact for the state.

Supporting Public Health

Poster of pinwheels planted in a garden. Text: You Can Help Kids' HOPE Center Create a Community Where No Child Experiences Neglect or Abuse

On April 3, Bay Area Hospital’s Kids’ Hope Center — based in Coos Bay, Ore. — commemorated National Child Abuse Prevention Month by covering the center’s property with a sea of vibrant pinwheels.

Supporting Public Health

stock photo of health worker in PPE taking patient's temperature in triage bay

NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City, announced plans to ensure New Yorkers continue to have the access to COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and treatment, as well as services to address Long COVID in all five boroughs.

Supporting Public Health

WVU Medicine expert Lisa Costello, MD

As the respiratory illnesses spread, experts at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital began to share vital information addressing the ‘tridemic,’ to help keep kids safe, avoid hospitalizations and lessen the burden on the health system.

Supporting Public Health

Getting your COVID vaccine today is quick, easy ad free! Find a location near you: UFHealth.org/FLVaccines

With COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions ticking up in early 2023, University of Florida Health — which serves all Florida counties — continues to encourage people to get vaccinated and boosted. The UF Health website features “Your Guide to COVID-Shots” with vaccine availability by county, stories from community champions and resources for community partners.

Supporting Public Health

Female RN in scrubs and badge stands in front of patient room in hospital

Despite data on the large numbers of people who have suffered and even died from COVID-19, many still don’t fear the virus and remain unvaccinated. That was the case of an unvaccinated man in New Hampshire until COVID-19 hospitalized him at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and nearly took his life. Today, he is in good health and vaccinated.

Supporting Public Health

Bill Mueller at lectern

Fewer than 1 in 4 pediatric hospital beds are available nationwide, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A pediatric infectious disease physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago talks about the growing risks of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and preventing hospitalizations by getting children vaccinated.

Supporting Public Health

How to have a patient-centered conversation about COVID vaccines

An animated video course describes seven distinct vaccine-related mindsets, or personas, and models how health care professionals can apply person-centered communication strategies when discussing COVID-19 vaccination. The online course, created by the Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education and based on a recent research study, focuses on using active listening strategies and motivational interviewing.

Supporting Public Health

How important are vaccines? Ask Maria.

Two healthy children overcame severe illness due to COVID-19, receiving care and treatment at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Both children had developed MIS-C, a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19. Texas Children’s has released a video of the parents sharing their stories — and urging other parents to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

Supporting Public Health

David Cornfield on CBS news segment on respiratory viruses

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, part of the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Network, is at “level 3 alert” capacity rate due to the triple threat of COVID-19, RSV and the flu. That’s one step away of putting tents outside the hospital’s front doors. Health officials say getting vaccinated is the best defense to avoiding overcrowded hospitals and keeping kids healthy for the holidays.

Supporting Public Health

Know where to go - RSV and other respiratory infections poster

Clinicians at St. Louis Children’s Hospital are making sure parents and caregivers know how to evaluate respiratory illness symptoms when children get sick during the peak of cold and flu season when RSV and COVID-19 cases are expected to rise. The hospital continues to urge COVID-19 vaccination for children age 6 months and older, emphasizing the importance of vaccinating young children to prevent death, avoid severe illness and help protect all family members.

Supporting Public Health

a boy and a girl show off their vaccine bandages

When COVID-19 vaccines were first authorized for children, infectious disease specialists at Akron Children’s Hospital shared evidence-based information and answered parents’ and caregivers’ questions. The hospital team continues to discuss the latest updates on COVID-19 and allergies, asthma and flu in kids as new boosters become available.

Supporting Public Health

Let's Band Together - Munson Healthcare poster

Urging its communities to “band together to take action,” Munson Healthcare in Michigan has released eye-catching videos and other resources to encourage people of all ages to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. Emphasizing the intense safety monitoring and testing of these vaccines, the health system also shares information geared to parents: “The more kids who are vaccinated the better vaccines work.”

Supporting Public Health

Project Art Heals Utah

Clinical leaders at the University of Utah Health are sharing data and stories to encourage people to get vaccinated or boosted against COVID-19. The health system also is the epicenter of Project Art Heals Utah, a collaborative art project that honors the “shared resilience” of communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supporting Public Health

Poster: COVID-19 Vaccine - 6 Facts you need to know

As kids head back to school, Children’s Mercy is sharing helpful information for parents and teens on COVID-19 vaccines, urging that everyone age six months and older get vaccinated. The info emphasizes the facts about COVID-19 vaccines, including how they were developed, how mRNA vaccines works and what to expect after receiving the vaccine.

Supporting Public Health

Black boy with bandaid on bicep gives thumbs up gesture

While masks have been removed from most school supply lists this season, health care officials say new variants, such as BA.5, can spread quickly putting kids and families at risk.

Supporting Public Health

Dr. Sarah Bosslet, Riley Children's Health Director of Primary Care

Riley Children’s Health is working to ensure that children, including those under age 5, get the COVID-19 vaccine, by hosting vaccine clinics across the Indianapolis area and ramping up access to the vaccine in pediatrician offices. The hospital also partnered with The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to vaccinate hundreds of children.

Supporting Public Health

Black man with bandaid on bicep holds sign that says For You. For me. For Arkansas.

To encourage Arkansas residents of all ages to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster, Baptist Health has set up vaccine clinics across the state at banks, churches, schools, shopping malls and more. These community locations provide convenient access for people to get their COVID-19 shots and, in some cases, receive an incentive. Most recently, the health system is holding immunization clinics with free back-to-school shots, including the COVID-19 vaccine, for children 12 and older.

Supporting Public Health

Boston Red Sox baseball

Red Sox baseball players are among the Boston area community members who have recorded videos sharing why they got the COVID-19 vaccine. Posted on the Beth Israel Lahey Health website, the stories inspire others to get vaccinated and are part of the health system’s wide-ranging efforts to encourage COVID-19 vaccination.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

Woman holding book, framed in a picture with the title saying got my vaccine.

To encourage all New Yorkers to get a COVID-19 vaccine and booster, NYC Health + Hospitals is featuring stories and videos of people sharing why they got their shots, including 99-year-old New Yorker Lettice Graham

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

Kid with yellow helmet and a face mask raising both hands in the air outside

Children’s Hospital Colorado has kept families informed with up-to-date news, resources and expert clinical advice about COVID-19 and vaccines. The hospital recently partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children between 6 months and 5 years at mobile clinics at the hospital’s campuses.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

Child being vaccinated against COVID-19 by a medical worker, both of them are wearing face masks

Seattle Children’s Hospital is taking a collaborative approach with parents to vaccinate young children against COVID-19.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

Person holding posters with messages to mask up, get vaccinated, and get boosted

Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s COVID-19 vaccine confidence virtual learning courses are designed to turn community leaders and influencers, such as PTA leaders, school nurses, faith-based leaders and local business owners, into vaccine advocates and promote vaccine acceptance in their communities.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

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Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine shares stories about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, supported by analyses of 2021 COVID-19 statewide data. Nebraska Medicine is sharing this information as part of its continuing communications outreach to encourage people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

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Though 80% of Rhode Islanders have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Care New England says it’s not enough until all eligible are vaccinated and boosted. Care New England, based in Providence, Rhode Island, has released a series of short videos with health care leaders thanking community members for being diligent about getting vaccinated but also urging them to “get a booster vaccine today.”

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

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In this Advancing Health podcast, Jeffrey Flaks, CEO of Hartford HealthCare, and Rebecca Stewart, vice president of content strategy, discuss the health system’s efforts to connect with the community during the pandemic, build trust and get people vaccinated. Flaks and Stewart join Kathy Cummings, AHA’s director of communications, for a conversation about how Hartford HealthCare is changing health care for the better, connecting with people in meaningful ways and helping get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.

COVID-19 Care and Vaccine Efforts

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Vermont sits atop all other states with the highest percentage of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19: As of early February 2022, 80% of Vermont residents have completed vaccination and 64% have received a booster. And although hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are higher this winter than during the peak in winter 2021 — largely attributed to the coronavirus delta and omicron variants — the hospitalization rate in Vermont was the lowest across the United States.

Prevention and Wellness

girls hands displaying corsages on wrists

For some hospitalized teens in California, having their young life put on hold due to medical care won’t apply to that famous high school event: prom. Patients will have a full prom experience, from dressing up to hitting the dance floor, even as they recover from serious health problems.

Prevention and Wellness

Split screen video of three women in a video chat discussing womens health

“Real Talk,” an online women’s health education series by Virtua Health, features unfiltered, interactive chats with medical experts on a wide-range of health topics. It’s inspiring, informative programming aimed at helping women (and their families) live longer and better.

Prevention and Wellness

Woman with dog by her side sits in vail health branded lawn chair at an outdoor event

Vail Health in Eagle River Valley, Colo. collaborated with local mental health providers, first responders and others to address the “paradise paradox” and stem a surge in suicides.

Prevention and Wellness

#HoustonHealthy event

Houston Healthcare President and Chief Executive Officer Charles Briscoe recently announced the launch of a new Community Healthcare Initiative called #HoustonHealthy. The goal of this initiative is to encourage everyone in Houston County to focus on preventative health measures as a way to protect against diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and, of course, COVID-19.

Prevention and Wellness

PeaceHealth Wellness Wednesday Cancer Screening for Filipinos Poster

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center is joining forces with Ketchikan Wellness Coalition on a $300,000 grant funded program to advance health equity among the Alaska’s growing Filipino population.

Prevention and Wellness

dog and handler next to blue bus

VA Southern Nevada Health is finding new ways to prevent substance misuse among veterans at risk and build relationships. Canine drug detection teams are doing more than just confiscating illegal narcotics, the well-trained dogs are helping to develop a positive bond between patients and police and create a friendly atmosphere for prevention and treatment.

Prevention and Wellness

Caring & Sharing: Home is Where the Heart Is card

The Brookings Health System Foundation makes it easy for colleagues to help other colleagues struggling through tough times exacerbated by the pandemic through an employee emergency fund program. The program offers a wide range of support services, including meals and cleaning services, to staff working long hours.

Prevention and Wellness

2022 Wheelchair Pickleball Series poster

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mary Free Bed provides and promotes competitive and recreational wheelchair and adaptive sports teams and classes for people of all ages with disabilities. With one of the nation’s largest sports program for people with disabilities, the rehabilitation hospital offers a variety of opportunities for people to increase their physical activity, reduce the risk of or help manage chronic conditions — and have fun while doing it.

Prevention and Wellness

illustration depicts black parent reading book to baby seated on lap

In Georgia, a hospital and its affiliated OB/GYN and pediatrics offices are implementing a new program to help all babies and toddlers gain access to foundational skills necessary to build literacy. Called Talk with My Baby, the program aims to help every child learn to read by the third grade.

Prevention and Wellness

Five people dressed professionally, three of them sitting on a couch while the other two are standing. They are all posing for a picture.

WellSpan Health, which serves central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, has bolstered its efforts to become a more diverse and data-driven culture, resulting in positive outcomes for patients and staff.

Prevention and Wellness

stethoscope placed on a LGBTQ+ flag with a LGBTQ+ themed heart sticker next to the stethoscope

Health care disparities exist among the LGBTQ community because patients often times refuse to seek treatment or assistance worrying that health care providers may not respect their gender identity or sexual orientation. Inova Health opened the first medical clinic in Northern Virginia, called Inova Pride, dedicated to the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community.

Prevention and Wellness

Representatives of the university hospital dressed professionally, standing on the staircase of a building and posing for a professional picture

All employees at University Hospitals, based in Cleveland, are aligned around its Zero Harm initiative: zero clinical harm, zero suffering from a poor patient experience, zero inequities and zero wasted resources.

Prevention and Wellness

Three women posing for a picture, smiling, and wearing scrubs while the woman in the middle is holding a plaque award.

St. James Parish Hospital’s 3D mammography team receives the Skin Marking in Mammography Excellence Award from Beekley Medical for clear communication and precise interpretation for the best patient care.

Prevention and Wellness

Community Memorial Health System. People around tables arranged in a square at a caregiver navigator program meeting.

In the fall of 2020, CRMC’s population health division launched a three-month campaign that covered multiple topics dealing with opioid use disorder: how to get help, how to talk to providers about alternatives to opioids and the importance of stigma reduction.

Prevention and Wellness

Community Memorial Health System. People around tables arranged in a square at a caregiver navigator program meeting.

According to a 2020 report by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, more than 50 million Americans are family caregivers and their health is significantly declining, which negatively impacts their ability to care for their loved ones living with serious illnesses. Community Memorial Health System and its partners created a caregiver navigator program to support family caregivers and integrate them as part of the patients’ health care teams.

Prevention and Wellness

AdventHealth Hendersonville Age-Friendly Task Force gathered together.

Teams work together across the health system and with community partners to meet the care needs of patients and families during every stage of life and health. The health system incorporates age-friendly care into annual wellness visits for older adult patients and includes age-friendly initiatives as part of its annual strategic and financial planning.

Prevention and Wellness

Nurse writing down information on notepad while talking with patient.

Hackensack Meridian Health’s Maternal Health Task Force, a blue-ribbon panel of internal and external experts dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes. The task force’s goal is to make New Jersey the safest state in the nation to have a baby.

Prevention and Wellness

Nurse writing down information on notepad while talking with patient.

At St. John’s Riverside Hospital, two-thirds of the patient population is over the age of 65. The leadership team at the hospital in Yonkers, New York, has made providing age-friendly care a priority. They know that providing care that is age friendly helps older adults enjoy a better quality of life.

Prevention and Wellness

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With in-person events no longer possible due to stay-at- home orders and health and safety restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carilion Clinic’s Community Health and Outreach team found a new way to continue to bring free health education to the community. Beginning in April 2020, health educators in all hospital markets transitioned to “Take a Break” virtual education sessions to provide timely, relevant tips focused on improving well-being and maintaining a healthy lifestyle during an uncertain time.

Prevention and Wellness

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To help empower all members of the community to enjoy the healthiest lifestyle possible, Hunting Hospital is dedicated to providing health and outreach services to meet the needs of its community. The hospital provides free health screening, counseling, education and referrals. Staff are active all year participating in community, faith organization, and school health fairs and events, working with many community-based organizations, health clinics and schools. These interactions inform the hospital about community health needs and allow them to respond with appropriate services.

Prevention and Wellness

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The Nuvance Health hospitals are dedicated to serving the community as a wellness resource. This includes providing health education and wellness opportunities, offering community outreach programs to promote wellness and preventive medicine. Offerings include:

  • Speaker’s bureau for nonprofit organizations and civic clubs
  • Holding blood drives
  • Hosting health fairs and a variety of community wellness events
  • Community forums on disease management and education
  • Health Talk, public education television show to promote healthy lifestyles
  • Opioid-abuse prevention initiative

Prevention and Wellness

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Lakewood Engage is the cornerstone initiative of Lakewood Health System’s community health division and the engine that drives all its food insecurity programs. In 2020, Lakewood Health System connected more than 1,300 children, seniors, low-income individuals and patients with chronic health conditions to one of its seven programs designed to address the challenges and health consequences of hunger and food security.

Since the inception of Lakewood Engage in 2013, it has evolved from simply connecting local produce growers to patients at its hospital-based Staples Area Farmers Market to constructing a comprehensive clinic-based referral program that prescribes local produce to patients through its “Food Farmacy” market.

Prevention and Wellness

Memmorial Hermann Role of Hospitals Image

The lack of community mental health programs means that patients wait until their situations become a crisis before reaching out for care. Memorial Herman operated three mental health crisis clinics that operate as “urgent care” options for individuals experiencing mental health and behavioral concerns. They offer emergency medicine administration, counseling, solution-focused intervention, psychosocial assessments and safety planning. The staff work to connect patients with an outpatient providers and arrange for follow-up appointments.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Telling the Hospital Story: Penn Medicine/Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Todd Legg, who is diagnosed with ALS talks with a reporter from Fox 29 Philadelphia on his new treatment at Penn Medicine/Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the motor neurons that connect brains to the muscle. ALS has traditionally been very hard to treat. But the picture is getting a little brighter with the advent of a new drug called Qalsody that is now in experimental trials at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

futuristic concept stock art of doctor wearing stethoscope manipulating a digital hologram of a heart in a medical file

When Eloise McCloskey turned 11, she got the best birthday present she and her family could have asked for: a phone call from Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, telling her a donor heart had been identified for her.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

stock photo of doctor holding stethoscope gesturing at laptp screen showing brain image rendering

Two hospitals in California’s San Luis Obispo County are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to detect strokes, using an app called Viz.ai to read patients’ CT scan results to identify symptoms within minutes.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

healthcare team huddle shot from below

Jefferson Health recently subscribed to the Nurse Emeritus Program across all 18 of its hospitals throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The national program allows retired nurses to stay engaged on their own terms, working less than full time, at the bedside or in the department, with lots of freedom in terms of where they work.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Vivistim system components: implant, wireless transmitter, controller, and laptop with software interface displayed

Atlantic Health System recently became the first in New Jersey to use Micro Transponder®, Inc.’s Vivistim® Paired VNS™ System, an FDA-approved, breakthrough technology for stroke survivors experiencing ongoing hand and arm impairment.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

female health worker holding tablet talks with female patient wearing scarf on her head

Cody Regional Health is one of the few hospitals in Wyoming to offer Tyrer-Cuzick Scoring, a new type of breast cancer risk scoring, and staff hope to eventually integrate automated breast density assessment, artificial intelligence and deep machine learning techniques into the program.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Robot hand holds stethoscope aloft

At Eisenhower Hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif., medical trainees are using simulator mannequins that can imitate a wide range of human behavior. The mannequins are part of Eisenhower’s new high-tech simulation laboratory, the John Stauffer Center for Innovation in Learning.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

surgeon operating in theater

University Hospital,New Jersey’s academic medical center and the principal teaching hospital for Rutger’s New Jersey Medical School, offers advanced prostate cancer treatment promising shorter recovery times.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Zipline drone flies across blue sky trailing a small red package

In 2024, Michigan Medicine will begin delivering prescriptions to thousands of patients through a new drone delivery service . The hospital will provide the deliveries through a partnership with Zipline, a commercial drone delivery company.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Pregnant woman gets ultrasound

Clinicians and data science teams at Northwell Health in Lake Success, New York, are using artificial intelligence to close health equity gaps. For example, using AI tools, the health system is working to better forecast expectant mothers who could benefit from early intervention and specialized care to ensure safe childbirth — helping improve maternal health care for Black women.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

#ENDALZNOW poster

Banner Health is leading the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, bringing together top physicians and scientists to find better ways to prevent, delay and treat the disease, which some experts call one of the most important health care challenges in America. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, a popular retirement destination, the health system is seeing a rapidly growing rate of people with Alzheimer’s disease, which has been linked to COVID-19.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Bearded man in flannel shirt and puffy vest stands leaning over farm fence

When it became clear that farmers in rural Wisconsin were struggling with mental health issues, Marshfield Clinic Health System began a program to train members of its community — bankers, insurance agents and others — in spotting symptoms of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. They are now the front line of defense in a community that may find it difficult to seek help.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Hospital whiteboard in labor and delivery room

An innovative yet simple approach to improving perinatal care, called TeamBirth, was piloted by four U.S. hospitals including Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This teamwork and communication initiative is empowering laboring moms and supporting clinical care teams, while reducing the number of unnecessary cesarean deliveries and increasing patient satisfaction scores. TeamBirth now has been adopted by all Tulsa delivery hospitals and is being implemented across the country

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Poster: How likely are you to have cancer in your lifetime

Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City is one of the first to use a break-through test to detect early signs of cancer. With a simple blood draw, the test can scan for more than 50 types of cancer, including those not commonly screened for today.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital - sequence genomes

Researchers with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Pediatric Cancer Genome Project investigate childhood cancers and incorporate findings into clinical trials at the hospital and internationally. The goal is to improve cure rates and long-term outcomes for several types of childhood cancers.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Three people posing for a photo, one dressed as a doctor, and the other two dressed formally.

Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans is using predictive analytics to improve patient safety, care delivery and health outcomes. For example, the health system applies machine learning to reduce health care-acquired Clostridioides difficile infections.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Patient lying down in hospital bed, connected to a extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine

HCA Florida Healthcare uses lifesaving ECMO therapy on COVID-19 patient

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

Computerized graph of gene sequenced code being pointed at with hand holding a pen

Intermountain Healthcare is using precision genomics to personalize care and treatment for diseases like cancer, determine an individual’s risk for certain genetic conditions and identify how well an individual will respond to specific medications and dosage. The overall goal is to provide a better patient experience while helping to reduce costs.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

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OSF HealthCare, based in Peoria, Illinois, launched OSF Innovation to “embrace change and take on the largest health care challenges.” The team assessed what was needed to improve health outcomes and safety, increase access to care and make care more affordable.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

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The mission of the Technology & Innovation Development Office (TIDO) is to maximize the impact of Boston Children’s innovations on patient health while enhancing the research endeavor. The work translates the laboratory and clinical research excellence of Boston Children's Hospital into products for the public benefit. TIDO uses a multi-faceted approach to promote, support and develop research, technology and clinical innovations through the protection and licensing of intellectual property, investing in Boston Children's technologies, and establishing strong research and development partnerships with industry throughout the innovation-to-product life cycle.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

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The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator supports the growth and development of early-stage companies that are developing health care solutions to transform health care quality, efficiency and care delivery. Forty-seven companies from around the world have participated in the three-month program that offers mentorship and the ability to collaborate with clinicians, researchers and other Cedars-Sinai experts. The program is designed to improve care delivery by helping entrepreneurs bring their innovative technology products to market. The program is three months long and in addition to funding, offers mentorship from more than 300 leading clinicians and executives, access to Cedars-Sinai and exposure to a broad network of entrepreneurs and investors.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

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The Mercy Health Research & Innovation group operates as a research and innovation hub for the health system and is integral to organization’s mission to improve the health of communities, provide patients with the opportunity to participate in cutting edge research and support and grow clinical research and innovation with the priority to drive improvements in standard of care for patients.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

health workers practice on dummy

The Montefiore Einstein Center for Innovation in Simulation was established by Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The innovation center features state-of-the-art simulation technologies and is equipped for medical education and research, combining nursing schools and physician care to foster an environment that focuses on training procedures for health care professionals at all stages of their careers.

Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement

surgeons in operating theater

The MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center was established with the goal of supporting and coordinating telehealth services. It is housed within the MedStar Institute for Innovation (MI2), and is a system-wide resource that provides telehealth infrastructure, best practices, subject matter expertise, project implementation, and programmatic operational support. Even more important now during the pandemic, key areas that MTIC supports include the MedStar eVisit urgent care on demand platform, video visits, ED teletriage, and more.

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