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.
Member Resource: Building and Maintaining Public Trust and Confidence
Share these new resources with your communications and leadership teams.
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.
All Stories
Ensuring Access to Care
HaysMed, Gove County Medical Center, Scott County Hospital, Clara Barton Medical Center
Kansas
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.
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.
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
Alaska Native Medical Center
Anchorage, Alaska
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 has a new outpatient program to address the growing mental health needs of older adults in northwestern North Dakota.
Benefiting Communities
University of New Mexico Hospital Children’s Psychiatric Center
Albuquerque, N.M.
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
Hackensack Meridian Health
Edison, N.J.
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
Children's Hospital Colorado
Aurora, Colo.
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
Children’s Mercy Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
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.
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
University of Washington Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Seattle, Wash.
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
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
UAMS, Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas
Arkansas
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.
Hospitals and health systems can't meet growing patient demand without full leveraging advanced practice providers (APPs).
Workforce
University of Michigan Health-West
Michigan
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
WVU Medicine United Hospital Health Center
Morgantown, W.Va.
WVU Medicine United Hospital Health Center is addressing this issue by partnering with the United Way of Harrison and Doddridge Counties to establish the first medical respite care center in the state of West Virginia.
Ensuring Access to Care
Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) will now house within their emergency department a comprehensive behavioral health program, as well as an HIV prevention and care program.
Ensuring Access to Care
Indiana University Health recently began a new community health initiative to provide prevention, education and early detection of cardiovascular disease — which includes free blood pressure screenings — in area barbershops.
Ensuring Access to Care
Thanks to a federal grant, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is aiming to provide care for women at one of the darkest times in their lives.
Ensuring Access to Care
Half of all Medicare beneficiaries get their benefits through Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which are offered by private companies and in theory should provide the same level of coverage of traditional Medicare.
Ensuring Access to Care
Houlton (Maine) Regional Hospital has received a level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation, the bronze standard, for delivering excellent care for older adults in its emergency department.
Ensuring Access to Care
In this conversation, Tina Pattara-Lau, M.D., maternal and child health consultant with the Indian Health Service Office of Clinical and Preventive Services, and Johnna Nynas, M.D. obstetrics and gynecology specialist at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center, explore common disparities and systemic barriers Indigenous people experience in pregnancy and postpartum.
Ensuring Access to Care
The AHA’s prestigious Foster G. McGaw Prize honors health delivery organizations that have demonstrated a strategic approach to community health and addressing health disparities.
Ensuring Access to Care
A new pediatric heart clinic in Troy, Mich., opened by Children's Hospital of Michigan, is handling pre- and post-surgical appointments for area patients, relieving them from much longer commutes to Detroit.
Benefiting Communities
CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital
Durango, Colo.
Durango, Colorado-based CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital has partnered with emergency medical services (EMS) agencies across the Four Corners region in the use of Pulsara, a cutting-edge EMS-to-hospital communication technology that provides real-time cardiac status updates from the field.
Benefiting Communities
UnityPoint Health - Blank Children's Hospital
Des Moines, Iowa
The Cruise to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, is an annual convoy of classic and modified cars, parading past the hospital for patients’ enjoyment.
Benefiting Communities
SSM Health Hospitals in Missouri are taking a proactive role in combating the state’s high infant mortality rates through their Infant Safe Sleep Program.
Benefiting Communities
Thanks to a partnership between Monument Health and the Porter Project, thousands of second-grade students in the Black Hills of South Dakota received a free book — and homework for their parents.
Benefiting Communities
Healthier Northshore is a collaborative initiative led by St. Tammany Health System to improve health outcomes across Louisiana’s Northshore region.
Benefiting Communities
AtlantiCare
Galloway Township, N.J.
AtlantiCare opened 50 new state-of-the-art private rooms spread over two floors at its Mainland Campus in Galloway Township.
Benefiting Communities
Big Sandy Medical Center has remained independently owned for 60 years, defying the trend of small rural hospitals being absorbed by larger health care systems.
Benefiting Communities
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston
Massachusetts General Hospital, based in Boston, has partnered with the Matthew Perry Foundation to establish the Matthew Perry Foundation Fellowship in Addiction Medicine.
Benefiting Communities
Evanston Regional Hospital
Evanston, Wyo.
Intermountain Health
Utah
The closure of labor and delivery services at Evanston Regional Hospital last December left a significant gap in prenatal care in southwestern Wyoming. Utah-based Intermountain Health has stepped in to fill the gap, ensuring that patients wouldn't be left without care.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
Cedars-Sinai Health System
Los Angeles, Calif.
Like many health systems, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles found itself facing access and administrative challenges — long wait times for patients, time-consuming paperwork for doctors. To address these concerns, they launched an artificial intelligence-powered virtual platform called Cedars-Sinai Connect which, according to a recent study, showed positive results when compared to traditional physician recommendations.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
Nebraska Medicine
Omaha, Neb.
Nebraska Medicine has become the first medical center in the world to use allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
UW Medicine
Seattle
Researchers at UW Medicine and the University of Washington in Seattle have developed a new 3D-printed device called STOMP (Suspended Tissue Open Microfluidic Patterning) that significantly advances human tissue engineering.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
HCA Healthcare
Nashville, Tenn.
In part two of this conversation on patient safety and AI, Randy Fagin, M.D., chief quality officer at HCA Healthcare, shares how one of the nation’s largest health systems is putting AI into practice
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
HCA Healthcare
Nashville, Tenn.
Randy Fagin, M.D., chief quality officer at HCA Healthcare, shares insights into the organization's bold approach to improving safety outcomes with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Seattle
For kids with cancer, challenges often don’t end when cancer ends. Returning to school can be uniquely difficult.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
St. Joseph’s Hospital
Syracuse, N.Y.
A groundbreaking surgical robot known as the ESP robotic platform is now being used at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse to treat early-stage rectal cancer and large polyps with a minimally invasive approach.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital
Durango, Colo.
In this conversation, Josh Neff, CEO of CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital, discusses a new cutting-edge communication platform that sends patient EKGs directly from the ambulance to the cardiologist in real time.
Innovation, Research and Quality Improvement
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC
The Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology divisions at the Medical University of South Carolina teamed up to create and test an algorithm for treating children with sickle cell disease who arrived at the ED with a fever.
The algorithm helps providers better determine which kids should be admitted and who should go home for treatment with close follow-up from the hospital.
Prevention and Wellness
UCF Lake Nona Medical Center
Orlando, Fla.
Now, thanks to the Libraries with Heart program, libraries in Central Florida are places where community members can keep an eye on one aspect of their health.
Prevention and Wellness
University of Rochester Medical Center
Rochester, N.Y.
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester in New York are investigating a potential biomarker in the brain that could diagnose psychosis before symptoms appear.
Prevention and Wellness
In this conversation, Mindy Estes, M.D., former CEO of Saint Luke's Health System and former AHA board chair, and Roxanna Gapstur, Ph.D., R.N., CEO of WellSpan Health, discuss the strategies that enabled WellSpan to maintain high-quality care during and after the pandemic.
Prevention and Wellness
Vermont Medical Center
Burlington, Vt.
To provide a safe alternative to the ED and help people before they experience a mental health crisis, University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., and several other organizations worked together to open the Mental Health Urgent Care in October 2024.
the Mental Health Urgent Care offers mental health services, peer support and help accessing follow-up services to guests
Prevention and Wellness
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital
Oklahoma City, Okla.
The Oklahoma Children’s Hospital Paws for Purpose program has been helping patients with cognitive, physical and emotional healing since 2017.
Prevention and Wellness
HCA HealthONE Rose Medical Center
Denver, Colo.
At HCA HealthONE Rose Medical Center in Denver, two wagging tails, belonging to therapy dogs, bring smiles and a sense of peace to the hardworking staff.
Prevention and Wellness
Children's Hospital of Georgia
Augusta, Ga.
Some things run in families; for Matthew Smith and his son Turner, that’s care at Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
Prevention and Wellness
University of Tennessee Medical Center
Knoxville, Tenn,
How long does it take to plan a wedding? For some nurses at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, it took four hours.
Prevention and Wellness
When parents have a child with a serious illness, all they want is for their child to get well. If that no longer becomes a possibility, often all they want is to bring their child home.
Workforce
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, Ill.
In this conversation, Diane Mariani, program manager at Rush University Medical Center, discusses their Caring for Caregivers program, which shares resources and guidance to family and friends who care for older adults, while helping them better manage their own health and wellness.
Workforce
In this conversation, Renee Whiskey-LaLanne, director of community partnerships at Montefiore's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Kevin Fiori, M.D., vice chair of community health and engagement at Montefiore Health System, discuss how the lofty dream of an institute turned into reality, as well as the strategies for addressing social determinants of health.
Workforce
Hannibal Regional Hospital
Hannibal, Mo.
In this conversation, Susan Wathen, vice president of human resources at Hannibal Regional Healthcare System, discusses their unique approaches to finding and retaining future health care employees.
Workforce
NYC Health + Hospitals
New York, N.Y.
In this conversation, Jeremy Segall, chief wellness officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, discusses the system's various well-being programs, as well as the steps needed to move these programs forward in big organizations.
Workforce
Gifford Health Care
Randolph, Vt.
Gifford Health Care is spotlighting team members who live, work and deliver health care in rural Vermont, as part of its “Redefining Rural” video series.
Workforce
Dartmouth Health
Lebanon, N.H.
In this conversation, Carolyn Isabelle, director of workforce development at Dartmouth Health, discusses the health system's numerous approaches to recruitment, and the successful strategies that support a healthy and engaged workforce.
Workforce
Torrance Memorial
Torrance, Calif.
Understanding the key role that the next generation can play in bridging the workforce shortage gap, Torrance Memorial Medical Center recently hosted more than 180 local high school students to explore different health care career paths.
Workforce
UMass Memorial
Worcester, Mass.
UMass Memorial is laser focused in addressing workforce challenges by creating new opportunities for professional growth and career advancement in health care.
Workforce
NYC Health + Hospitals / Elmhurst
Elmhurst, N.Y.
The COVID pandemic has been a health care game changer, and its lasting effect on care teams accelerated issues like burnout and the need to address well-being.