Advancing Health

America has seen soaring rates of fatal overdoses from opioid analgesics – that is prescription drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is often produced and sold illegally. Hospitals are trying to limit the amount of opioids leaving their doors while increasing education about opioid use and misuse among health care workers and patients and deploying new treatme...

Since the start of the pandemic, foreign based ransomware gangs have dramatically increased targeting of U.S. hospitals and health systems and their mission critical service providers - with many becoming victim of high impact ransomware attacks. These attacks have disrupted hospital business operations, delayed health care delivery and risked patient safety - not only for the victim organization...

Some 57 million rural Americans depend on their hospital as an important source of care as well as a critical component of their area's economic and social fabric. In many areas, there is growing concern…that fabric is starting to fray. The stresses of the past 2.5 years have affected every hospital and health system in America, none more so than rural hospitals. On this Leadership Dialogue Series...

Each day, more than 300 Americans are shot, and, according to the CDC, more than 110 are killed by gunfire. The Government Accountability Office reports that gun violence costs hospitals over $1B annually. Dr. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and director of Northwell Health's Center for Gun Violence Research recently testified in front of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee on this topic....

Patients with complex medical and social needs are often challenging to treat in a traditional medical encounter. An intensive high-touch care delivery model in the outpatient setting can improve value for patients, providers and payers. In this podcast, Julia Resnick, director of AHA’s Strategic Initiatives is joined by Dr. Stacy Bank, medical director of University of Utah Health’s Intensive Out...

Health care is currently seeing a dramatic increase in cyberattacks, including disruptive ransomware attacks that interrupt patient care and risk patient safety, as well as impact hospital and health system business operations. It is essential that health care organizations understand the current cyber risk landscape and understand that cyberthreats are a true enterprise risk. Acknowledging this,...

As we start to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding and reconnecting to purpose, rediscovering our why is key to moving forward. The health care workforce is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities to redefine care delivery and encourage the next generation of leaders to use the lessons of the last two years to change for the better. Dr. Tom Yackel, President of MCV Physician...

Bundled care programs are a key driver in the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care. In this Members in Action podcast featuring maternal and child health efforts, Aisha Syeda, senior program manager at the AHA is speaking with CJ Stimson, Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt University Medical Employee Health Plan and Senior Vice President of Value Transformation in the Office of...

For three decades, the 340B drug pricing program has enabled hospitals that serve high numbers of low-income patient populations to stretch scarce federal resources and provide more comprehensive care to their patients and communities. The program, which has enjoyed strong bipartisan support, does not cost taxpayers a dime. Instead, the program is subsidized by drug companies, which are required t...

On this Leadership Dialogue Series podcast, AHA Board Chair Wright Lassiter III, is joined by Mikelle Moore, senior vice president and chief community health officer at Intermountain Healthcare, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Using many examples from Intermountain, Lassiter and Moore explore the different roles that hospitals and health systems can take in advancing community health — including as...

Before long, some Ukrainian nurses who are fleeing the war in their country will be taking a journey of some six thousand miles, to call Louisiana their new home. The nurses’ journey to relocate to a safer place comes courtesy of Ochsner Health in New Orleans, which has partnered with several organizations to make it happen. Global Nurse Partners, which brings internationally experienced nurses an...

Women in America have the highest mortality rate than any other developed country, but equitable maternal care can change that. In this podcast, Priya Bathija, vice president of AHA’s strategic initiative speakers with globally recognized expert and leader in maternal care, Dr. Neel Shah. As the Chief Medical Officer at Maven Clinic, Dr. Shah will shed some light on the state of maternal health in...

The opioid crisis has been around for decades and has progressively worsen during the pandemic. According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, there were more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States from April 2020 to April 2021, an increase of 28.5% during the same time period the year before. Yet only 23% hospitals have an opioid stewardship program, according to th...

Since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, health care has faced many workforce challenges in delivering patient care, including staffing shortages and clinician burnout in the face of unrelenting demand. These challenges have affected all health care staff — from front-line workers to the C-suite. Having the right leaders in the right positions is essential to building and strengthening a ded...

During the past two years, the health care field has been focused on fighting COVID-19…as it should be. Yet at the same time, another crisis surges. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data that shows synthetic opioid fatalities rose by an unprecedented 55% during the pandemic – from September 2019 - September 2020. And according to a national survey conducted in 2020 by the Am...

Recently, families across the nation are struck with a shortage of infant formula, causing ripples of misinformation. Though efforts to alleviate the current recall on infant formula, and related supply chain issues are in the works, many mothers and families are still struggling to feed their infants. The lack of support resources and the rise in prices have also contributed to the stress familie...

On this Leadership Dialogue Series podcast, AHA Board Chair Wright Lassiter III, talks with Erin Fraher, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and research associate professor in the Department of Surgery at UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, N.C. She also is director of the Carolina Health Workforce Research Center, one of five national health workforce research centers in...

CMS's Hospital Quality Measurement and Value programs have shaped the hospital field and given patients information to inform their care for over 15 years. But a once in a lifetime pandemic has had a profound impact on how those programs operate. On today's podcast, we'll discuss what happened with these critical programs during the pandemic and where CMS can go from here. Joining this [Special Ed...

Hospitals have accelerated the development of their innovative telehealth programs during the pandemic. In this Members in Action podcast, Julia Resnick, director of strategic initiatives at the AHA, is speaking with Thomas Harris, Jr., Executive Vice President of Operations at Gillette Children’s in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They will be discussing how Gillette Children’s virtual rehab program has e...

Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, Senior Director, Health Equity Strategies and Innovation, in the Institute of Diversity and Health Equity at the AHA, sits down with Dr. James Min, CEO and Co-founder of AHA Associate, Cleerly, as well as Dr. Richard Chazal, Senior Cardiologist and Medical Director of the Heart & Vascular Institute at Lee Health System. Dr. Min and Dr. Chazal are at the forefront of a new pop...

Leading care teams through COVID-19 has been a challenge unlike any other. As hospital leaders struggle to retain and support an exhausted workforce they are left looking to understand how to address the traumatic stress caused by COVID-19. In today's episode, Elisa Arespacochaga, AHA vice president of clinical affairs and workforce, sits down with Dr. Brooke Buckley, vice president and CMO of Hen...

Strategy. Transformation. Both are integral to today’s most successful health care planning agendas and associated initiatives. Accenture’s perspective on what, why, and how hospitals and health systems are planning strategic agendas brings new perspective on these approaches. Rather than taking a more traditional linear approach to strategic planning, hospitals and health systems that successfull...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health care workforce. Despite these challenges, the staff team at Phelps Health continue to grow through a series of initiatives designed to create a culture of trust and bring all staff members into crucial decision-making processes. In today's episode Elisa Arespacochaga, AHA vice president of clinical affairs and workforce, sits down wi...

Pregnant women around the country faced uncertainty upon the arrival of COVID-19. The medical community identified significant knowledge gaps in the impact of the virus on mothers’ and babies’ health at all stages of pregnancy. Knowing more about the impact of the virus on pregnancy and the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women is vital for treatment and prevention. In this episode, D...

Between 2011 and 2015, the number of children presenting to the ED for behavioral health concerns at Rady Children’s Hospital increased by 500%. To decrease the need for emergency behavioral health care services and to improve the early identification and treatment of symptoms, the Rady team developed their Transforming Mental Health Initiative, which integrates behavioral health services into the...