Combating stigma is the missing element to the nation’s response to the addiction crisis, writes Matthew Stefanko, director of National Stigma Initiative for Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the U.S. Read more about how and why our understanding of stigma can save tens of thousands of lives.
AHA Stat Blog
Latest
Last week, we Americans exercised our hallowed right to vote in record numbers. We did so at a time of unusual stress, facing steep challenges and deep divisions within our country. Yet once more, we honored our democratic system and our heritage by using the ballot to speak our minds.
We shouldn’t be surprised by now, but 2020 continues to be an extraordinary year … and it’s not over yet.
There are so many statistics being shared related to maternal mortality in the United States — but what is the real story?
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times, “Trump doled out billions to drug makers and hospitals with few strings attached,” misses the mark. The reality is that America’s hospitals and health systems are facing their greatest financial crisis
The U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 10 will hear oral argument in California v. Texas, the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
The American Hospital Association and Microsoft now offer a free, one-hour course, for continuing education credits, to guide health care teams through key considerations and specific actions for AI’s responsible and strategic implementation.
For the last several months, disturbing and unproven theories have gained attention about the death count for COVID-19. We find these erroneous and egregious charges leveled against doctors – which have been repeated during the past few weeks – dismaying, disconcerting and disturbing.
Some health care needs are predictable but some are not. We can plan around giving birth, having a heart bypass, or scheduling a colonoscopy. But there are also surprises, such as injuries from accidents, or a cancer that appears with no family history … or COVID-19.
We’ve been discussing for months how hospitals and health systems are contending with the worst financial crisis in their history as they continue to serve on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
White Plains Hospital in Westchester County, New York, found itself at the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis. A team led by our chief information officer began to investigate more efficient methods to automate temperate screenings, including using thermal cameras to take temperatures. They went with a self-service cart with a thermal camera imbedded in it.
A COVID-19 vaccine is likely coming soon. Whether it’s next month, at the end of the year or in early 2021, many scientific experts believe we will have one or more safe and effective vaccines to combat the deadly virus.
Leadership in
While work is underway on new payment and delivery models for rural hospitals, additional, targeted actions by Congress and the Trump administration are needed to support these hospitals and their communities, writes Erika Rogan, AHA senior associate director of policy. Rogan says listening to rural hospitals’ concerns and ideas is essential for shaping policies that are effective and meaningful.
In 2019, the term “burnout” was added to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). According to the ICD, burnout is a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
COVID-19 is a pandemic with no precedent, and certainly no equal. In many ways, we’ve been learning as we go. For health care professionals, this has elevated the importance of peer-to-peer sharing as never before.
A recent article from Axios attempts to say that the hospital and health system field is not being negatively impacted financially by the pandemic. The article ignores the diverse experiences of hospitals during the pandemic, particularly those that are under significant financial pressure.
Hospitals and health systems have reinvented themselves in many ways to respond to COVID-19. Since March, decades of standard operating procedures have been reexamined, redesigned and refined — all with the goal of saving lives while protecting caregivers and patients’ families during the pandemic.
We know that prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, demand for health care workers and health care job openings were at record highs. We also know that the pandemic created pressure to quickly ramp up staffing levels and optimize surge capacity, even as the cancellation of non-emergent surgeries caused serious financial challenges for hospitals and health systems.
The good — our society clearly recognizes the vital role our hospitals and health systems play in our nation’s critical infrastructure and how important they are to our communities’ health and safety. The bad — we have seen an increase in the frequency, severity and sophistication of cyberattacks targeting hospitals and health systems.