Advancing Health

The AHA's Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award recognizes outstanding efforts among hospitals and health care systems to advance equity of care and reduce health disparities within their communities. 2023 Rural Winner, Monument Health, was honored for their journey in health equity progress that has spanned over 8 years. In this conversation, Paulette Davidson, president and CEO of Monument He...

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. Finalist GBMC HealthCare was one of the organizations honored in 2023 for leading the way. In this conversation, John Chessare, M.D., MPH, president and CEO of GBMC HealthCare, shares how they began investing in their Ba...

Digital innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning and other spaces are becoming more present in health care. With these advancements also come threats from cybercriminals. Through June of 2023, 48 million individuals were impacted by 250 data breaches as reported to the HHS Office of Civil Rights, and about a quarter of them were high-impact ransomware attacks. In this conversation,...

The AHA's Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award recognizes outstanding efforts among hospitals and health care systems to advance equity of care and reduce health disparities within their communities. 2023 Transforming Winner, Meritus Health, was honored for creating and implementing strategies that influence equity within its community. In this conversation, Allen Twigg, Meritus Health's execu...

Building and retaining a nursing workforce is one of the many challenges facing health care today. In this conversation, Wendy Horton, chief executive officer of UVA Health, and Beth Mehring, program manager of the “Earn While You Learn” program at UVA Health, discuss the successes of "Earn While You Learn" and how their approach to sustaining the nursing workforce can provide solutions for hospit...

The AHA's Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award recognizes outstanding efforts among hospitals and health care systems to advance equity of care and reduce health disparities within their communities. 2023 Emerging Winner, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), was honored for its passion and progress in advancing health equity. In this conversation, Franck Nelson, RWJUH assistant vic...

In the United States, behavioral health and physical health can sometimes be treated as if they are unconnected, usually involving separate sites of care. One small, rural health system decided to override the usual way of doing things and provide a care model that reconnects treatment to the whole person. In this podcast, Charlie Forbush, chief administrative officer at Western Wisconsin Health,...

For health care professionals, victims of human trafficking aren’t easy to spot, and many victims are reluctant to share much about the horror they endured. Mercy Medical Center’s Blue Dot Human Trafficking Initiative flags potential victims of human trafficking for its team of 30 forensic nurses who serve the greater Baltimore region. In this conversation, Debra Holbrook, director of Forensic Nur...

When kids experience acute behavioral health needs, they need to be cared for at the right time and the right place. In this conversation, Brian Skehan, M.D., Ph. D., director of Pediatric Emergency Mental Health Services at UMass Memorial, and Jemima Amankwah, nurse manager of Emergency Mental Health at UMass Memorial, discuss caring for these specific pediatric patients and how UMass is helping...

The many pressures squeezing health care providers have all served to make the role of hospital trustees, or governing board members, more important than ever. These boards have been charged with making sure that quality metrics are met and that strategic priorities guide the missions. In this conversation, John Haupert, president and CEO of Grady Health System and the 2023 Chair of AHA’s Board, a...

The gap between supply and demand for health care continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Reinventing and transforming the nature of care delivery is essential for hospitals and health systems to achieve quality patient outcomes. In this conversation, hear how Northwestern Medicine is using digital technology to better prepare teams to work in the new world of health care, and why a digital mi...

Since 2020 the health care workforce has faced a sharp increase in workplace violence. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that health care workers are five times more likely than any other type of worker to be physically attacked on the job. In this conversation, Karie Gibson, Psy. D., unit chief of one of the FBI’s five Behavioral Analysis Units, discusses the meaning of behavioral thr...

The 2022 mass shooting during the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois killed seven people, wounded another 48 and traumatized an entire community. In this emotional conversation, Gabrielle Cummings, president of NorthShore Highland Park Hospital, discusses how the hospital team responded head-on to an unfolding crisis and kept not only the Highland Park community together, but the hea...

The AHA’s Suicide Prevention Learning Collaborative was created to start a dialogue among health care providers about the best ways to provide support for health care workers. In this conversation, Paul Rains, senior vice president of behavioral health at CommonSpirit Health, discusses ideas and shared best practices to ensure that every health care worker is cared for and supported across the org...

Clare Fox, physical therapist with North Country HealthCare in New Hampshire, shares why she left her native England to pursue her health career dreams in the United States. She explains how adopting the team-focused managerial approach she learned from the Lean Six Sigma training courses makes all the difference in efficient health care.

The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on loneliness put a spotlight on the profound impact that social isolation is having on the physical and mental health of American communities. In this conversation, Maulik Joshi, Dr. P.H., president and CEO of Meritus Health, discusses their Care Callers program. The program enlists volunteers to call and check in on Meritus patients who report experiencin...

Millions of women across the United States have no access to maternal health care, particularly in rural areas that lack obstetric services. In this episode, leaders from St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, discuss their newly piloted "Center for Excellence" and the Center's success in bringing care to infants and mothers within their community and beyond.

The majority of overdose deaths in the United States involve opioids. Already a huge problem pre-COVID-19, the pandemic has accelerated opioid misuse to levels never seen before in the U.S. In this conversation, a leader from the District of Columbia Hospital Association shares the multiple approaches they’re using to help curb the opioid epidemic and reach the communities most impacted.

The federal government and private sector face common dangers from ever-escalating cyberattacks that continually test their readiness and capabilities. In this discussion, two experts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Atlantic Health System agree that what’s needed right now is an integrated “whole-of-nation” solution to handling today’s cyberthreats.

Parents will do anything to keep their kids healthy, yet many children remain unvaccinated for COVID-19. In this conversation, Claire O'Connell Boogaard, M.D., Children’s National Hospital pediatrician and COVID-19 vaccine program medical director, discusses the hospital's efforts to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, especially in historically marginalized communities.

In this post-pandemic era, health care leaders are finding new ways to strengthen performance through innovative approaches, while improving care, quality and patient safety. In this conversation hear how Johns Hopkins is using innovation to ensure long-term financial stability while managing day-to-day struggles. This podcast is brought to you by Guidehouse.

Building a robust nursing workforce is hugely important in providing quality care to patients, but poses unique challenges in rural Ohio. In this conversation, Fisher-Titus’s Stacy Daniel, director of clinical programs, and Katie Chieda, chief nursing officer, share how their team concentrated on recruiting international nurses to ensure that they remained a strong, independent health system for y...

With fall approaching, health officials across the country are once again bracing for a rise in respiratory illnesses, including the triple threat of COVID-19, flu and RSV. In this discussion, two St. Luke’s Health System experts describe how they pivoted to provide respiratory care during last year's surge, and how the rapid creation of Respiratory Outpatient Clinics across the state made a treme...

Health equity is a discussion that is often framed only around race, but it means so much more. In this discussion, two heads of rural health systems explain how they're working to reach underserved communities, and the steps they're taking to get to full equity.

The AHA Quest for Quality Prize honors hospitals and health systems committed to leadership and innovation in improving quality and advancing health. In this podcast this year's three honorees talk about their achievements, reflect on the challenges they faced, and assess the real impact of equity on quality of care.