Fred Gattas

Delivery System Transformation, Governance Effectiveness, Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Leveraging Technology, Issues & Trends

IT interoperability: what is it, whats holding it up?

“Interoperability” has been a technology buzzword for a while now. But, what does it really mean?

Simply defined, interoperability is the ability of computer systems to “talk” to one another and easily share information. It is especially critical now as more and more of our health information is recorded and stored electronically.

Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy, Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends, Workforce

Taking the Pledge to Eliminate Disparities

To meet the changing needs of our communities, hospitals are working hard to make sure that every individual receives the highest quality of care. To achieve that goal as our nation becomes increasingly diverse, we must redouble our efforts to identify and eliminate disparities in care.

Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness

Multiple Surveys Show Decline in Number of Uninsured

It’s rare that multiple surveys tell the same story. But several recent surveys have come to the same conclusion: The number of uninsured individuals in the United States has declined dramatically in just two years.

Governance Effectiveness, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends

The Importance of Reducing Nonbeneficial Care

The overuse of antibiotics in both medicine and livestock has been making headlines recently, and patients and community members may be turning to you with questions. The American Hospital Association, in fact, is already addressing the public health and national security threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. AHA participated in the recent White House forum on antibiotic stewardship and shared the toolkit it developed with six national partners to help hospitals and systems enhance their antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Quality & Patient Safety

Making Sense of Hospital Quality Ratings

Every day, it seems that a new hospital quality scorecard is released, sparking news stories about how hospitals compare with one another and against nationwide benchmarks. For years, U.S. News & World Report has ranked “Best Hospitals” in the country by state and specialty.

Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Patient and Family Education/Engagement, Quality & Patient Safety

A New Framework for Working with Patient and Family Advisers

Boards have a keen interest in quality, and they are helping their hospitals and systems to implement a variety of improvement strategies. One particularly effective tactic is building successful partnerships with patients and families by including patient and family advisers. A new guide from the American Hospital Association’s Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative, “Partnering to Improve Quality and Safety: A Framework for Working with Patient and Family Advisors,” presents a structure to engage patients and families as advisers on these important issues.

Governance Effectiveness, Operational Excellence, Leveraging Technology

The Importance of Cybersecurity and Information Sharing

Nearly every day, the news brings word of another data breach at a major corporation. Hospitals and health systems are not immune to this danger, and more importantly, they are part of the United States’ critical infrastructure — that is, their systems and assets are considered so vital to the country that their impairment as a result of a cyberattack would pose a threat to the nation’s public health and safety.

Strategic Planning

Equity of Care Toolkit Guides Boards and Leaders in Eliminating Disparities

The American Hospital Association released a free toolkit designed to accelerate the elimination of health disparities and increase leadership diversity. Equity of Care is a national collaborative effort of the AHA and other health care associations focused on eradicating disparities by meeting three goals: increase the collection and use of race, ethnicity and language preference data; increase cultural competency training; and increase diversity in governance and leadership.

Governance Effectiveness, Workforce

Promoting a Culture of Health

Is your hospital or health system promoting a culture of health in the communities it serves?

Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy

The AHAs Advocacy Agenda and Trustees

A new year and a new Congress always bring new challenges and opportunities. But one thing hasn’t changed: the American Hospital Association’s resolve on behalf of our nation’s hospitals.