Rick Pollack, President and CEO, AHA
![Rick Pollack Perspective 900x400 12-2023](/sites/default/files/2023-12/Rick-Pollack-Perspective-900x400px-12-23.png)
Challenges. Resilience. Innovation. Opportunities.
These four words help describe the current environment facing our hospitals and health systems — nearly three years into a pandemic that has transformed the nation’s health care landscape and our society.
As Congress convenes for its post-election lame-duck session, we are turning up the pressure to secure additional support for hospitals and the patients and communities they serve. We need to put on a full-court press — and that includes all of us reaching out to our senators and representatives — to urge them to include a number of key priorities in a year-end spending package.
For more than 400 years, we have paused each fall to give thanks. We do so during good times and bad because most years bring a mixture of both.
This year, our world, our nation and our field face many difficult challenges. But that’s why it’s so important that we take the time to express our gratitude for the many things we are thankful for. This includes the amazing work that hospitals and health systems do — every minute of every hour of every day of the year — to advance health in America.
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 against Taiwan, or a North Korean missile aimed at Japan.
We cannot know for sure what this unsettled era will bring. But we do know that we are blessed with the strongest, bravest and best-trained guardians a nation can have: the individuals who wear the military uniform of the United States of America.
There are many significant milestones in our nation’s history of voting.
After Election Day, lawmakers will return to Washington to consider many important issues, including funding the government, the annual must-pass defense bill, hurricane aid, election reform and tax extenders.
The health care field continues to be a top target for cybercriminals. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), there has been an 84% increase in the number of data breaches against health care organizations from 2018-2021, with 324 reported in the first half of 2022 alone.
That commitment to being always there and ready to care is being tested as hospitals and health systems navigate historic workforce shortages, broken supply chains, rapid inflation that has increased the cost of caring, and other severe financial pressures that could jeopardize access to care.
With fall in full swing, there are two easy steps that individuals can take to protect themselves and their families against illness – get a flu shot and get a COVID-19 vaccination or booster.
Forty-six days from now on Nov. 8 millions of Americans will cast their ballots and exercise their most sacred right – the right to vote.