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

Ensuring Access to Care

HaysMed, Gove County Medical Center, Scott County Hospital, Clara Barton Medical Center
Kansas

7 Kansas rural hospitals form network to strengthen independence, advance value-based care

Seven independent rural hospitals have joined forces to launch the Kansas High Value Network, a new collaborative organization designed to expand access to care, improve clinical outcomes and reduce operating costs while preserving local governance.

Ensuring Access to Care

Jefferson Health
Philadelphia, Pa.

Care Without the Wait: Rethinking Access to Healthcare

In this conversation, Baligh Yehia, M.D., president of Jefferson Health, shares how the organization is rethinking healthcare access through same-day cancer care, virtual primary care, home-based services, and expanded access to clinical trials.

Ensuring Access to Care

LCMC Health
New Orleans, La.

Bridge to Care: Better Care Transitions for Opioid Use

This conversation shares how integrated care models, addiction consult services and peer navigators are improving care transitions and increasing access to evidence-based treatment.

Benefiting Communities

Patients sit in a group speaking with a health worker in scrubs

Alaska Native Medical Center
Anchorage, Alaska

Alaska Hospital Creates a Healing Environment for Patients in Recovery

In Anchorage, hospital beds are increasingly occupied by patients who are medically ready to leave but have nowhere to go while they wait for short-term nursing and rehabilitation services. To help address this growing challenge, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is building a new skilled nursing facility on the Alaska Native Medical Center campus.

Benefiting Communities

CHI St. Alexius Health Williston
Williston, N.D.

CHI St. Alexius Health Williston launches behavioral health program for older adults

CHI St. Alexius Health Williston has a new outpatient program to address the growing mental health needs of older adults in northwestern North Dakota.

Benefiting Communities

A therapist sits with a child using emotion flashcards

University of New Mexico Hospital Children’s Psychiatric Center
Albuquerque, N.M.

New Mexico hospital's Children’s Psychiatric Center enhances behavioral healthcare for children and adolescents

The University of New Mexico Hospital has completed a major expansion and modernization of its Children’s Psychiatric Center in Albuquerque.

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

Patient sits next to his hospital bed eating a hospital meal

Hackensack Meridian Health
Edison, N.J.

How NJ's Largest Health Network is Fixing an $8B National Crisis in Parkinson's Care

Hospital care for people with Parkinson’s disease costs nearly $8 billion annually and places about one in six hospitalized patients at significant risk for an avoidable complication due to healthcare systems that are not designed to meet their unique, time-sensitive needs.

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

A physical therapist working with a young girl patient

Children's Hospital Colorado
Aurora, Colo.

Colorado hospital helps develop national standards for cognitive and developmental care in sickle cell disease

Children’s Hospital Colorado helped the National Alliance of Sickle Cell Centers develop new national standards to improve how developmental and cognitive challenges are identified and managed in people with sickle cell disease (SCD).

Innovation, Research, and Quality Improvement

woman's hands holding a red plastic heart

Children’s Mercy Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri

Heart transplant gives Kansas teen new outlook after lifelong cardiac battle

A 16-year-old Kansas patient is looking toward a future with fewer health limitations after receiving a heart transplant at Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

Prevention and Wellness

Cone Health
Greensboro, N.C.

Pregnancy and the Heart: Why Teamwork Matters

Maternal mortality remains a critical challenge in the United States, and many pregnancy complications are linked to chronic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease.

Prevention and Wellness

Cancer patient in hospital bed smiling at health worker

University of Washington Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Seattle, Wash.

Seattle hospital screening program connects patients to lifesaving cancer care

The University of Washington Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Colorectal Cancer Screening Program is helping more people detect colorectal cancer early through at-home tests, clinician outreach and patient navigation support.

Prevention and Wellness

NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
New York

The First Chapter: Literacy and Bonding in the NICU

In this conversation, Gabriela Jimenez Thompson, program lead of Our Story Begins at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and Liliana Escobar, R.N., NICU head nurse at Bellevue Hospital Center, share how the Our Story Begins program uses books, reading, language and nurse education to strengthen NICU parent engagement, bonding and early childhood development.

Workforce

A nurse hands a newborn to a mother in hospital bed

UAMS, Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas
Arkansas

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences develops new toolkit to help hospitals integrate doulas

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Institute for Community Health Innovation has launched the Advancing Doulas and Perinatal Teams Toolkit, a new resource designed to help hospitals better integrate doulas into maternal care teams and improve outcomes for mothers and infants.

Workforce

M Health Farview
Minneapolis, Minn.

How APPs Can Ease the Healthcare Workforce Crisis

Hospitals and health systems can't meet growing patient demand without full leveraging advanced practice providers (APPs).

Workforce

Linda Bos and her three daughters — Lydia Hollemans, Naomi Palmbos and Anika Bos — each serve in different areas across the Michigan Health-West health system.

University of Michigan Health-West
Michigan

Under one roof: A family of nurses working throughout University of Michigan Health-West

At University of Michigan Health-West, a unique family story is unfolding through the work of four dedicated nurses from the Bos family.

Ensuring Access to Care

Expanding Telehealth Services and Access for Successful Maternal Care

In this conversation, Johnna Nynas, M.D., OB/GYN at Sanford Health Bemidji, discusses the dramatic expansion of maternal telehealth capabilities in Minnesota.

Ensuring Access to Care

stock image of a mother in hospital gown kissing her newborn on the head

Dartmouth Health Co-Leads New Hampshire Perinatal Quality Collaborative

Dartmouth Health. A new mother in hospital gown kisses her newborn

Ensuring Access to Care

Providence Swedish Rehabilitation Hospital
Lynwood, Wash.

A “beacon of hope” — and a set of wheels — for injury and illness rehab patients in Western Washington

Residents of Snohomish Country, Wash., now have a new space for comprehensive rehabilitative care — which, as a result, opens crucial bedspace for non-rehab patients.

Ensuring Access to Care

Designing Pregnancy Care to Meet the Needs of Hispanic Families

In this conversation, Jennifer Cohen, M.D., medical director of the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, King of Prussia, and Katie Costantini, director of maternal care services at Chester County Hospital, discuss the barriers that can affect maternal care in Hispanic populations, and how deploying bilingual volunteers provided the opportunity to learn what worked and what could be improved.

Ensuring Access to Care

Changing the Tide in Maternal Health Outcomes to Reduce Morbidity and Address Equity

In this conversation, Veronica Gillispie-Bell, M.D., OB-GYN at Ochsner Health, discusses successful strategies to reduce maternal morbidity after childbirth, and how these solutions should always start with equity at the forefront.

Ensuring Access to Care

A male clinician crouches next to a little girl and her parents, offering the child a teddy bear

Oklahoma hospital introduces new training to better serve patients with autism

A trip to the hospital emergency department can be overwhelming for anyone, but for individuals with autism, the stress can be significantly heightened.

Ensuring Access to Care

Navajo Sage Behavioral Health building exterior

Navajo Health Foundation - Sage Memorial Hospital
Ganado, Ariz.

Navajo psychiatrist bridges gaps between Native American culture and behavioral health care

As the only Navajo psychiatrist on the 27,000 square mile Navajo Reservation, Dr. Richard Laughter breaks down accessibility barriers for his people by blending Native cultural practices with Western behavioral health care.

Ensuring Access to Care

‘Patient-friendly’ Home Hospital program provides quality acute care

In March 2024, the Home Hospital team at Yale New Haven Health marked a milestone by caring for its 1,000th patient. That patient, Debbi Kinell, knew of the program since her mother had been one of the program’s first patients shortly after it was launched in 2022.

Ensuring Access to Care

Addressing Mental Health Disparities Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities

In this conversation, Tracey Lavallias, executive director of behavioral health at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, discusses potential solutions to make access easier for patients.

Benefiting Communities

CommonSpirit Health
Chicago, Ill.

From Dollars to Difference: How CommonSpirit Health's Donor Support Drives Community Health

In the final episode of a four-part series with the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), CommonSpirit Health's Daniel Morissette, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Nancy Bussani, executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer, explore the powerful connection between financial health and philanthropy.

Benefiting Communities

Sanford Health
Sioux Falls, S.D.

Communities That Care: The Power of Giving with Sanford Health

In this conversation, Sanford Health's Bill Gassen, president and CEO, and Deb Koski, chief philanthropy officer, discuss how a strong culture of giving is extending world-class care across rural communities in the Midwest and beyond.

Benefiting Communities

Capital Health Regional Medical Center
Trenton, N.J.

Major expansion of heart and vascular care in Trenton

In what local leaders call a “transformational moment for Trenton and the surrounding communities,” Capital Health has unveiled its new Heart and Vascular Center at the Regional Medical Center in Trenton, N.J., a major expansion spanning 12,650 square feet.

Benefiting Communities

Wyoming Medical Center
Casper, Wyo.

Banner Wyoming Medical Center launches latest ambulance coloring contest

Kids love to decorate with their art, and the elementary schoolchildren of Natrona County in central Wyoming have an exciting display case for their ideas: area ambulances.

Benefiting Communities

The Children's Mercy team poses for a group photo

Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas
Overland Park, Kan.

Children’s Mercy launches partial hospitalization for youth with complex health needs

Children’s Mercy has announced the opening of its new Partial Hospitalization Program to support children and adolescents facing serious medical and mental health challenges.

Benefiting Communities

Two emergency department health workers in scrubs treat a female patient on a hospital bed in a triage bay

Saint Francis Hospital
Tulsa, Okla.

Saint Francis Hospital in Oklahoma earns Level I Trauma Center designation

Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., earned a Level I Trauma Center verification from the American College of Surgeons — the highest designation for trauma care in the U.S.

Benefiting Communities

Stock image of canned goods, dry goods and fruit in a cardboard box

Oklahoma Hospital Association
Oklahoma

Oklahoma hospitals deliver more than 1 million pounds of food to patients

Since 2020, the Oklahoma Hospital Association has worked with health care systems across the state in partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to provide patients and families with fresh produce, pantry staples and ready-to-eat meals.

Benefiting Communities

University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital patient James Hall

University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital
Iowa City, Iowa

Stead Family Children’s Hospital treats rare-disease patient — and makes time for football

At University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, 5-year-old James Hall is being treated for Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like disorder that affects only one to two newborns out of every million.

Benefiting Communities

A medical team rushes a patient on a stretcher down a hospital hallway

Ascension St. John Medical Center
Tulsa, Okla.

Oklahoma hospital becomes Tulsa’s first Level 1 Trauma Center

Ascension St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, Okla., has been verified as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS).