Advancing Health

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 and U.S. healthcare facilities together for permanent positions, is among the groups Ochsner has worked with, along with CGFNS International, the American Hospital Association and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. Together, these groups are providing two very valuable services. The Ukrainian care providers are receiving refuge and protection from an escalating conflict and communities around New Orleans and across Louisiana are getting trained nurses at a time when the U.S. does not have enough nurses to meet demand. Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Health, sat down recently with Robyn Begley

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 U.S, along with how Maven Clinic is supporting Black moms and their families. He will also share ways hospitals can transform maternal health care into becoming more valuable and equitable, for a better care experience for all mothers.

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 the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, In this episode – part three of AHA’s five-part series on opioid stewardship, Marie Cleary-Fishman, vice president of clinical quality at the American Hospital Association, is joined by Dr. Holly Geyer, hospital internal medicine practitioner sub-specialized in addiction medicine at Mayo Clinic. The discussion: the roots of the opioid epidemic and the state and federal requirements - and institutional protocols – for developing solutions.

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 dedicated workforce, as well as preparing for the expected and unexpected business continuity challenges before, during and after a crisis. This is especially true for the health care field as it continues to battle the unprecedented COVID pandemic and faces what comes next. Join us as Northwell Health shares how its leadership approaches have affected all levels of clinical, operational, and administrative staff to help the system weather the storms of the COVID Pandemic, the Great Resignation and more, all while providing the highest-quality patient outcomes. The conversation will also touch upon the concept of Desti

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 American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, only 23% of hospitals have an opioid stewardship program. In this episode, Marie Cleary-Fishman, vice president of clinical quality at the American Hospital Association is joined by Dr. Holly Geyer, internal medicine practitioner sub-specialized in addiction medicine at Mayo Clinic. The discussion: what to do about the surging number of overdose deaths during the pandemic. In this episode, Dr. Geyer will share the importance of establishing an opioid stewardship program no matter the size of your practice, and essential steps, tools and tips to achieving success.

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 families are facing. Priya Bathija, vice president of AHA’s Strategic Initiatives sits down with Dr. David Paul, Service Line Leader of Woman and Children at ChristianaCare and Kristy Anderson, Clinical Nutrition Manager at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center to discuss ways their organizations educated and worked with families to identify alternate formula options, and mitigated misinformation. They will also share steps hospitals are taking to manage such instances better in the future. For any hospital needing either normal formula or specialty formula, reach out to Abbott Nutrition at www.abbottnutrition.com/metab

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 the U.S. Erin and Wright talk about trends in the health care workforce that have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Erin suggests the fundamental questions for hospitals and health systems are, “How are we deploying [people]? How are we utilizing them to the best possible ability to keep them happy, keep the hospital productive and keep patients healthy and well?” She further explains: “It’s this notion of turning workforce planning on its head — from planning for professions to planning for patients.

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 Edition] podcast to discuss is Akin Demehin, Senior Director of Quality and Patient Safety Policy with AHA. This podcast was recorded live at the AHA Annual Meeting.

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 enabled them to better serve their patients.

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 population-based, precision heart care approach that is transforming the historical approach to cardiovascular care by treating the actual disease instead of symptoms. Together, they discuss how this new standard of care ultimately impacts health equity. For more information on the journey to health equity please visit https://equity.aha.org/

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 Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital and Robert Matheny, Manager of Neurodiagnostics at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI to hear about their work on trauma-informed leadership and how they’ve approached leading teams in the midst of COVID-19.

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 successfully plan focus on creating an integrated “Connected” plan leading to more actionable and sustainable outcomes. BayCare understands this well. Join us for a discussion on various approaches hospitals and health systems can take when establishing their strategic plans, and hear insights from BayCare about their experiences and benefits from adopting a “Connected” transformation planning approach and the lessons they learned along the way. Today’s podcast is brought to you by Accenture.

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 with Jason Shenefield, CEO at Phelps Health in Rolla, Missouri to discuss the innovative approaches Phelps has taken to grow and sustain a healthy workforce.

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, Dr. Rachel Humphrey, director of AdventHealth for Women’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine, joins Kathy Cummings, director of communications at AHA, to talk about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for both mom and baby, the critical role physicians play in addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and how doctor-patient relationships are strengthening during this pandemic.

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 pediatric primary care setting. In this Members in Action podcast, Rebecca Chickey, AHA’s senior director of behavioral health, is joined by Domonique Hensler, Senior Director of Care Redesign Planning and Mental Health Integration, and Dr. Benjamin Maxwell, Interim Division Director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, to discuss this care model’s positive outcomes for patients, families and providers.

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and it is an opportunity to reflect on the generations of Asian Americans who have enriched America’s history and celebrate the nearly 20 million Asian American individuals who are instrumental to our country’s future success. In this podcast, Joy Lewis, AHA’s senior vice president of Health Equity Strategies and executive director of the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity is joined by Janet A. Liang, executive vice president, group president and chief operating officer, care delivery, Kaiser Permanente to discuss her experience as an Asian American health care leader, challenges within the Asian American community and what this month means to her.

Increases in consolidation and alignment between commercial health plans and pharmacy benefit managers have resulted in a series of business practices designed to steer patients to insurer-affiliated pharmacies and away from patients’ longstanding providers to the detriment of patient care. Under new policies being implemented by a number of large commercial insurance companies, they steer patients to third-party specialty pharmacies – often owned by the same parent company as the insurer – to acquire medication necessary for clinician-administered treatments, such as chemo infusions. Commonly referred to as “white bagging,” this practice raises significant patient safety issues, results in frequent delays in care and shifts tremendous administrative burden to hospitals to reconcile these policies on behalf of their patients. To examine this concerning trend, we hear from Mark Howell, AHA’s director of policy and patient safety, and Michelle Millerick AHA’s senior associate director of health insurance covera

Join us to hear how Loyola University Health System’s new laboratory approach during the COVID pandemic was able to broaden communication and collaboration between clinicians and hospital leadership, improve patient outcomes and streamline process efficiencies while also increasing visibility for the system and reinforcing Loyola as a premiere resource for diagnosing and treating illnesses. Today’s podcast is brought to you by the College of American Pathologists.

Winona Health and the Winona Wellbeing Collaborative have addressed the fragmentation and silos between local agencies and providers. Hear from Rachelle Schultz, Ed.D., CEO, Winona Health and community leaders how the Pathways Community HUB model was used as a framework in designing the Winona Community HUB to serve the unique needs of the region. A community connector from Live Well Winona tracks the progress of clients through the HUB model, which is sustained by commercial payments for completed pathways.

Medicare Advantage or MA Plans are another way for beneficiaries to get Medicare Part A and Part B coverage delivered through private insurance companies. MA Plans adhere to the rules set by Medicare to cover beneficiaries, but their benefits are delivered by Medicare approved private companies. MA plans are part of a broader trend towards public sources of coverage, like Medicare and Medicaid, increasingly relying on private health plans to provide or administer their health benefits. Last year 42 % of all Medicare beneficiaries got their. benefits through private MA plans. Enrollment in these plans is growing at nearly 10% per year. There is serious concerns that coverage and patient access are being eroded as a result of health insurer efforts to restrict access and that there is a tremendous burden on health care providers to manage these insurer policies. In fact the HHS Office of Inspector General recently published a report finding that MA plans have exhibited a pattern of denying prior authorization a