America’s Essential Hospitals Highlights Member Work in Improving Health Care

America’s Essential Hospitals recognized six member hospitals for outstanding work improving health care quality, population health, and operational excellence.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, June 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- America’s Essential Hospitals recognized six member hospitals for their outstanding work in improving health care quality, population health, and operational excellence.

The 2025 Gage Award winners were announced at VITAL2025, America’s Essential Hospitals’ annual meeting, in Atlanta.

“Our members reach outside their walls to meet patients where they are and provide superior, person-centered care,” said Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals. “These awards spotlight innovative solutions that reflect their commitment to their mission.”

2025 Award for Quality Improvement: Natividad Medical Center, Salinas, Calif.
Natividad Medical Center leadership educated staff at community clinics about monitoring and treating anemia and opened an infusion center for iron infusion therapy, all with the goal of decreasing anemia in pregnant patients and decreasing transfusion rates. Recognizing that undergoing multiple rounds of infusions posed a barrier to treatment for patients, hospital leaders secured Medicaid coverage for single-infusion therapy courses. From 2021 to 2024, the anemia rate at participating clinics fell from 18.4 to 11.7%.

Honorable Mention: NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx
Prompted by an employee who was grieving her own parents, the hospitals launched the Compassion for Community: Continuing Care after Death program. The program sought to improve family support and facilitate the funeral process. The program improved decedent release times—in 2024, 90% of decedents were released in five days or less, greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 13.1 metric tons, and $90,000 was saved in overtime in the first year by minimizing refrigerated trailer use.

2025 AWARD FOR POPULATION HEALTH: Valleywise Health, Phoenix
Valleywise Health established the Women’s Refugee Health Clinic in 2008 to serve as a culturally grounded, patient-centered medical home for this community, which became part of the Valleywise Health Center for Refugee and Global Health in 2022. In 2024, the center served 17,000 refugee patients from 71 countries. The center has provided health literacy classes to more than 800 patients, adult refugee services to 1,437 men, and HIV/AIDS care to 880 adult refugees. Health care providers delivered 212 babies at the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic and installed more than 300 car seats for mothers who completed child safety classes.

Honorable Mention: ECMC, Buffalo, N.Y.
ECMC launched a remote patient monitoring program to mitigate barriers to treatment for patients with hypertension after discovering high patient hypertension rates, including among 56% of Black patients. Participants receive a blood pressure cuff at no cost and attend telehealth visits to assist with monitoring health behaviors, and ECMC collaborates with community organizations to provide blood pressure screenings at local events. Since 2022, ECMC has enrolled more than 900 primary care patients in the program, and the hypertension control rate among ECMC primary care clinics increased from 44.2% in 2022 to 69% in 2024.

2025 AWARD FOR OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: University Health, San Antonio
University Health launched a Hospital at Home program that provides hospital-level care in the comfort of a patient’s home. Nurses visit twice a day, and patients have access to remote vital signs monitoring, physical and occupational therapy, labs and intravenous medications, and social support. Since 2021, the Hospital at Home program has cared for more than 3,100 patients, freeing more than 16,400 hospital beds for sicker patients. The program has reduced readmissions, increased patient satisfaction, and saved University Health more than $17 million.

Honorable Mention: Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, Paramus, N.J.
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center’s Center for Comprehensive Addiction Treatment aims to expand access to withdrawal management services and substance abuse disorder treatment by offering involuntary and voluntary crisis units, withdrawal management, and short-term residential care. In 2024, the program served 3,938 individuals with inpatient care and provided 17,613 units of intensive outpatient care. Rates of treatment refusal post-discharge have decreased from 21% in 2022 to 12% in 2024. The rate of those leaving against medical advice also dropped, from 13.59% in 2022 to 8.6% in 2024.

Winners are highlighted on the association's YouTube page, and honorable mention programs are highlighted in the latest episode of Essential Stories, the association’s podcast highlighting member hospital innovations. A new guide, Excellence and Innovation in Care: The 2025 Gage Awards, features more about these and other highlighted programs.

James Swann
America's Essential Hospitals
+1 202-585-0102
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