News

To honor today’s annual celebration of rural hospitals and health systems, AHA’s John Supplitt, senior director of rural health services, talks with Roxie Wells, M.D., president of Cape Fear Valley Hoke Hospital and a member of the AHA Board of Trustees, about rural hospitals’ resilience in the face of change.

Five medical organizations this week released a toolkit for clinicians in post-acute and long-term care settings about the benefits of the COVID-19 bivalent booster and oral antiviral therapeutics. 

Children under age 5 are more likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if their parents perceive it as safe and their health care provider recommends it, according to a study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day on Nov. 17, 2022, AHA today joined a Twitter chat on rural health literacy hosted by the Rural Health Information Hub and National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

In partnership with AHA and others, Amazon Web Services announced the AWS Healthcare Accelerator, a virtual four-week mentorship program beginning in April for startups focused on digital solutions to help train, retain and deploy the health care workforce.

AHA released its annual snapshot of employment at America’s hospitals and health systems, which offers innovative strategies to help organizations build a robust workforce in the face of ongoing shortages and reconnect their clinicians to purpose and help them thrive.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI advised organizations to protect VMware Horizon servers from a Log4Shell vulnerability recently exploited by Iranian-sponsored actors. 

AHA this week released a new Thanksgiving-focused toolkit to help promote pediatric COVID-19 vaccination on social media, including sample content and graphics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and leaders from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Food and Drug Administration yesterday held a listening session with certain health system leaders and patient safety advocates they invited to discuss the department’s plan to launch next year a National Healthcare System Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, AHA recently released a webinar recording exploring new rural health care partnership models developed by the Build Healthy Places Network to invest in community health.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday released three voluntary sample formats (wide, tall and plain) that hospitals may use to meet the federal requirement to make certain standard charges publicly available through a machine-readable file. The agency also posted a sample data dictionary for the wide and tall formats.

In recognition of National Rural Health Day Nov. 17, this first in a two-part series on rural behavioral health examines how a health system in rural Colorado collaborated with mental health providers, first responders and others in its community to address a spike in suicides.

The AHA today released a new report showing how the unlawful actions of drug companies to limit 340B pricing with community and specialty pharmacies are having an adverse impact on access to care for patients and communities across the country. The report is based on a survey of more than 300 hospitals and health systems participating in the 340B program conducted earlier this year by the AHA.

The AHA and seven other national hospital organizations today urged congressional leaders to waive the Statutory PAYGO sequester before yearend to prevent nearly $10 billion in estimated cuts next year to hospital providers in fee-for-service Medicare.

Thursday is National Rural Health Day. It’s an opportunity to focus on the vital work that rural hospitals and health systems are doing each and every day to preserve access to high-quality, affordable care.

Former AHA Chair and Distinguished Service Award recipient William Petasnick died Nov. 8.

In an op-ed published in STAT, Mary Beth Kingston, chief nursing officer at Advocate Aurora Health and a member of the AHA board of trustees, and Christopher S. Kang, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, urge Congress to enact the bipartisan Safety From Violence for Healthcare Employees Act (H.R.7961).

The CDC reported continued increases in certain health care-associated infections in 2021 and improvements in others, based on the summary measure used by the National Healthcare Safety Network to track these infections.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration yesterday released National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care, which offer guidance and strategies to help communities address gaps in behavioral health crisis services for children and youth.

The news is filled daily with accounts of conflict around the globe … notably Russia’s war against Ukraine, but other potential clashes bubble near the surface, such as military action by China aga