Telling the Hospital Story 2026 Flip Book

Download and share examples reflecting hospitals' deep commitment to meeting community needs today while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow.

New Resources: Building and Maintaining Public Trust and Confidence

Member Resource: Building and Maintaining Public Trust and Confidence

Share these new resources with your communications and leadership teams.

A female physician laughs with a family at a community event

Hospitals Leading the Way to a Healthier America

Hospitals have always been at the heart of community health empowering healthier, happier lives for all.

AHA Launches New Multimedia Advertising Campaign to Promote Hospitals

The campaign includes a commercial that will run on national, cable, and digital TV and digital advertising.

Resources Spotlight Crucial Role of Rural Hospitals and Health Systems

The AHA released new resources to help rural hospitals and health systems share their stories and highlight the vital role they play in their communities.

Creative repurposing saves heart during double-lung transplant

Old technology — applied in new and novel ways — can still be a lifesaver.

Telling the Hospital Story: All Hospital Stories

Explore the amazing stories of hospitals going above and beyond to care for their patients and communities throughout America. Search by location using state, category, or hospital name in the interactive map below, or sort stories by category using the filter.

Telling the Hospital Story Home

Telling the Hospital Story Media

All Stories

Building Healthy Communities

University of Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, Neb.

The Next Outbreak: Hantavirus, Ebola, and Hospital Readiness

In this conversation, Angela Hewlett, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, explains how her team helped monitor and care for Americans exposed to the Andes hantavirus strain, the only known hantavirus capable of person-to-person transmission.

Building Healthy Communities

The Canyon County EMS whole-blood transfusion team stands in front of a Canyon County Paramedics ambulance

Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
Boise, Idaho

Bringing life-saving prehospital blood transfusions directly to patients in Idaho

Saint Alphonsus, in partnership with Canyon County Paramedics and the American Red Cross, has launched Idaho’s first ground‑based EMS whole‑blood transfusion program.

Building Healthy Communities

University of Illinois Chicago

Menopause Matters: Closing Gaps in Care and Awareness

University of Illinois Chicago's Pauline Maki, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, psychology, and obstetrics and gynecology, and Makeba Williams, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, unpack why menopause care is finally having a breakthrough moment.

Ensuring Access to Care

Cottage Hospital, New Hampshire
Sharon Hospital, Connecticut

A Rural Solution to the Geriatric Mental Health Crisis

In this conversation, leaders from Cottage Hospital and Sharon Hospital (part of Northwell Health) share how specialized geriatric behavioral health programs are helping older adults receive compassionate, comprehensive mental health care close to home.

Ensuring Access to Care

Springfield Hospital
Springfield, Vt.

Expanding access to advanced diagnostic tools in rural Vermont

A new service at a critical access hospital in rural Vermont is strengthening neurological care in the community.

Ensuring Access to Care

Hackensack Meridian Health
Hackensack, N.J.

Hackensack Meridian Health Opens Nation’s First Health & Wellness Center In A Major Travel Hub

The Metropark Health & Wellness Center is the first comprehensive health and wellness facility in the nation to be located within a major transit hub, offering convenient access to care for commuters and nearby residents.

Benefiting Communities

Hands practicing chest compressions on a dummy

Corewell Health
Michigan

Corewell Health and Champions of the Heart Foundation bring cardiac emergency response training to residents

Corewell Health and the Champions of the Heart Foundation are joining forces to expand emergency preparedness and lifesaving training across Michigan, aiming to equip more residents with the skills needed to respond to cardiac emergencies.

Benefiting Communities

two men have a discussion in a conference room

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center
Wyoming

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Expands Addiction Services

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC) has partnered with GamFin, a national nonprofit focused on financial recovery from problem gambling, to offer free, confidential financial counseling to Laramie County residents harmed by problem gambling.

Benefiting Communities

Southwest Health
Platteville, Wis.

How a Father-Daughter Team Is Strengthening Rural Maternity Care

Southwest Health's Kevin Carr, M.D., family medicine physician, and Melissa Carr, M.D., OB/GYN, reflect on the joy of practicing medicine together, delivering babies side by side, and caring for generations of families in rural Wisconsin as a father-daughter duo.

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

A surgeon wearing head lamp stands in operating theater

Community Memorial Hospital
Hamilton, N.Y.

Patients travel across New York state for robotic spine surgery in Hamilton

Community Memorial Hospital in Hamilton, New York, is transforming spine surgery by introducing robotic technology, led by neurosurgeon Dr. Nicholas Qandah.

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

Mercy Hospital St. Louis
St. Louis, Mo.

Missouri hospital treats liver cancer with bubbles, sound waves that ‘liquefy’ tumors

Mercy Hospital St. Louis is now using a cancer treatment that sounds more like science fiction than modern medicine: “Bubble clouds” and sound waves are being deployed to destroy liver tumors — painlessly.

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

image of a health worker examining a patient's knee

Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare
Clinton, Mo.

First-of-its-kind surgery utilizes miniature robotic system

A surgeon at Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton, Mo., has completed the world’s first knee replacement surgery using a new miniature robotic system.

Prevention and Wellness

Heads Up: Foundations for Youth Mental Health poster

Dartmouth Health Children’s
Lebanon, N.H.

Health system's ‘Heads Up’ series supports young people’s mental well-being

Dartmouth Health Children’s has launched a new season of its “Heads Up” mental health awareness series focused on children, titled “Heads Up: Foundations for Youth Mental Health.”

Prevention and Wellness

University of Pennsylvania Health System
Philadelphia

More Than Survival: Healing Trauma from Violence

In this conversation, Elinore Kaufman, M.D., medical director of the Penn Trauma Violence Recovery Program, and Michele Volpe, chief operating officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, share how hospital-based violence intervention programs are helping patients heal physically, emotionally and socially after traumatic injury.

Prevention and Wellness

CommonSpirit Health
Chicago, Ill.

Words Matter: Reducing Stigma in Substance Use Disorder Care

For millions facing substance use disorders, stigma isn’t just harmful — it’s a barrier to survival. In this conversation, three leaders from CommonSpirit Health explore how the organization is confronting stigma head-on through education, storytelling and culture change. They also reveal how shifting language, training and grassroots efforts are helping patients feel seen and heard on their road to recovery.

Workforce

Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns
San Diego, Calif.

High-risk pregnancy gives doctor new perspective at Sharp Mary Birch

At Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns in San Diego, Nick Saade, M.D., saw the patient experience from a different perspective — as a husband and expectant father.

Workforce

Real Solutions to Workplace Violence

In recognition of #HAVHope Day on June 5th, Sarah Hunter, president of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, explores the innovative approaches her team is using to reduce workplace violence. From a simple but effective buddy system to stronger partnerships with public safety agencies and community leaders, hear real-world solutions that help healthcare workers focus on what they do best — caring for patients.

Workforce

Hartford HealthCare
Hartford, Conn.

Innovative Models to Strengthen Behavioral Healthcare

In this Leadership Dialogue conversation, Marc Boom, M.D., president and CEO of Houston Methodist and the 2026 AHA board chair, speaks with John Santopietro, M.D., senior vice president at Hartford HealthCare and physician-in-chief of its Behavioral Health Network.

Benefiting Communities

Corewell Health K9 security officer Rex and patient tech Grace Bing

Corewell Health
Grand Rapids, Mich.

Corewell Health K9 retires, but not before coming full-circle with one of his patients

Rex, a 10-year-old German Sheppard that has served as a resident security police K9 for Corewell Health since 2014, retired last August. But before leaving the health system's hallways forever, he reunited with a familiar face he once comforted.

Benefiting Communities

Virtua, Michaels leaders at groundbreaking stand ouside in front of a large rendering

In Camden: Virtua, Michaels start on $24M affordable housing medical campus

Virtua Health, one of South Jersey’s biggest health care providers, is leading the way in partnership with The Michaels Organization to construct a 60,000-square-foot, multiuse building with 47 apartments as well as a medical practice in Camden.

Benefiting Communities

STC - Samaritan Sweet Home Medical Center 700x532

A ‘Sweet Home’ for new health center enables access to basic family care – and a pharmacy

Samaritan Health Services recently cut the ribbon on a new family health center in a rural Oregon town to ensure local access to family practice and urgent care services, thus filling a gap in care for a community where locals were forced to travel out of town to receive not just basic care, but to fill basic prescription needs.

Benefiting Communities

Boulder Hospital. Structure being torn down.

What do you do with an old hospital? In Boulder, you recycle it.

A city ordinance passed in 2020 prohibits massive deconstruction project debris from being hauled away to the dump. Instead, most of the material left from the brick-by-brick demolition of the Boulder Community Health hospital has been recycled and repurposed, keeping 60.8 million pounds out of the landfill.

Benefiting Communities

Reading Hospital Aims to Help Employees do Good

Reading Hospital recently announced that staff will be able to do volunteer work while on the clock through the Community Outreach and Engagement (CORE) program.

Benefiting Communities

Southern Utah hospitals get high marks for encouraging breastfeeding

A trio of Utah hospitals run by Intermountain Health are making sure that the best practice of breastfeeding has taken firm hold within their walls.

Benefiting Communities

Hackensack Raritan Behavioral Health ribbon cutting

Hackensack Meridian Health Opens State-of-the-Art Carrier Behavioral Health

Carrier Behavioral Health at Raritan Bay Medical Center represents a significant expansion of behavioral health treatment options to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey area residents served by the health system.

Benefiting Communities

Two Project participants stand before a wall of photos

Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center
Lancaster, Pa.

Gratitude Memorialized

Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center’s “The Gratitude Project” memorializes the stories of its health care workers while they navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benefiting Communities

American Hospital Association recognizes Lewis County General Hospital for 75 years in AHA

AHA recently honored Lewis County General Hospital for 75 years of membership and for its continued commitment to serving their patients and communities.