Articles
Care Delivery
Talking with millennials about cancer
When you’re young and on top of the world, cancer is likely the last thing on your mind. And yet, cancer rates for millennials and Gen Xers appear to be on the rise. One study from the American Cancer Society last year found that colorectal cancer rates are on the increase for young and middle-age adults. Rectal cancer rates, researchers found, are “increasing particularly fast,” as 3 in 10 rectal cancer diagnoses are made in patients younger than 55.
Financial Oversight
Community violence’s burden on hospitals
We all know the devastating effect that violence can have on our communities, but its impact on hospitals is less widely known.
Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety
Hospitals work to intervene, break the cycle of violence
He was a healthy 15-year-old boy living in St. Louis, wasn’t in a gang, got good grades and stayed out of trouble. But violence swirled around him, and the teen was so fearful of being shot that he contemplated suicide, with the thought of ending life on his own terms. Less than a year later, his fears came true. He was murdered.
Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning
When violence hits home: Lessons for hospitals
Trustee talking points
- In the aftermath of a number of shootings nationwide, hospitals are re-evaluating how well-prepared they are for handling mass casualty events.
- The American Hospital Association has launched a yearlong initiative, Hospitals Against Violence, to help the field better prepare for mass casualty events as well as incidents that occur inside a facility.
- Preparation and practice are keys to handling incidents of violence when they occur.
- Those who responded to attacks in Orlando, Fla
Governance Effectiveness, Strategic Planning
New AHA chairs calling for health care has deep roots
A chance moment kick-started Eugene Woods’ career as a health care leader more than 25 years ago, and a simple health care–related accident that took his aunt Carmen’s life years ago continues to fuel his passion for the field decades later. Now, Woods, 52, is embracing some significant new beginnings. In April, he took the helm as president and CEO of Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, N.C. Last month, he began his yearlong role as chair of the American Hospital Association’s board of trustees.
Leadership, Nurses, Workforce
Priorities for todays nurse leader
Maureen Swick, R.N., took the helm as chief nursing officer of the American Hospital Association and CEO of the American Organization of Nurse Executives last summer. She had been top nurse executive at Inova health system in Virginia and is a 30-year veteran in the health care field. Swick recently spoke with Trustee about nurse burnout, workplace violence and other hot topics, as well as AONE’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebration at its annual meeting in March in Baltimore.
So far, what has your new role been like with the AHA?
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Rural issues, Strategic Planning
9 ways to bolster vulnerable communities
Millions of Americans in both urban and rural communities are unable to access essential health care services. A new report from the American Hospital Association, Task Force on Ensuring Access to Care in Vulnerable Communities, offers nine innovative ways to improve access for vulnerable populations — which the AHA defines as those experiencing lack of access to primary care, a poor economy, high rates of uninsured and low health literacy, among other things.
Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy
AHA appoints new members to board
The American Hospital Association board of trustees has elected eight members to serve three-year terms on the board beginning Jan. 1. In addition, the board recently appointed two new trustees to serve partial terms. The elected trustees are:
Vanessa Ervin, past chair and current board member of the Onslow County Hospital Authority, Jacksonville, N.C., is CEO of Carobell Inc., a nonprofit health care provider in Jacksonville, N.C. Ervin, an ordained minister, will chair Regional Policy Board 3, where she currently serves as a delegate.
Financial Oversight, Leadership, Financial Management, Strategic Planning
Catholic Health Initiatives COO on Why Strategic Partnerships Make Sense
Michael Rowan, president and COO at CHI, describes how the large health system relies on partnerships to improve its operations, including in its health insurance and risk management. Rowan spoke with H&HN's Marty Stempniak at the 17th Annual Not-for-Profit Health Care Investor Conference in New York.
Governance Effectiveness, Nurses, Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends, Workforce
Hospitals step up efforts to fight opioid abuse epidemic
Trustee Talking Points
Trustee Talking Points
- Misuse of prescription opioids is reaching crisis proportions in the United States, with an estimated 44 people dying every day from an overdose of such painkillers.
- The problem cuts across demographic and geographic categories, enveloping the young, the old, the rich, the poor and those in between.
- The hospital field and governments are taking extra steps to combat the problem, both in prevention of addiction and treat