The Safety Net Pulse

After an unsuccessful treatment 20 years ago, Bunting MacCauley is now celebrating a year free of Sickle Cell Disease. Learn how essential hospital Jefferson Health, in Philadelphia, is innovating in this space, how their treatments can change lives, and hear from Bunting himself about his journey to a cure.

Our new board chair, Katrina Keefer, president and CEO of DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, Alabama joins the program to discuss her hospital, the threats facing essential hospitals, and the importance of this critical moment in the hospital industry.

From a rooftop farm, to a food pantry and a teaching kitchen, Boston Medical Center is ensuring that patients have the food and the knowledge for good health. Their Food as Medicine program is a model for hospitals seeking to treat food as part of patient care. Learn more from the experts at the heart of this vital program.

Recorded in person at VITAL2026 in Minneapolis, this episode features Dr. David Levine, Chief Medical Officer at Vizient, discussing their Clinical Database, a resource that allows hospitals and health systems to benchmark themselves across domains such as safety, mortality, patient-centeredness, and efficiency. Essential Hospital can use this resource to transform and sustain quality care.

In our latest episode, we sit down with Donna Lynne, DrPH, CEO at Denver Health, and Paula Chatterjee, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, to discuss how defining essential hospitals is a vital step to help safety net hospitals navigate the current challenging health care landscape.

Read our policy brief about essential hospital designation to learn more about the details.

https://essentialhospitals.org/policy-considerations-for-defining-essential-health-systems/

Learn more about the programs that received honorable mention at the 2026 Gage Awards. Featured programs include a TMC Health initiative to improve access to cardiac rehabilitation among rural populations, a Hennepin Healthcare program to improve the health of physician trainees, and a NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue program to reduce emergency department boarding.

Like many essential hospitals, Cambridge Health Alliance has a deep connection with the community, working every day to achieve better outcomes. Learn more about how they do it from their CEO, Assaad Sayah, MD, on this episode of The Safety Net Pulse.

Mobile health care is a successful form of care delivery that can bring incredible value to health care systems. Memorial Healthcare System in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has embedded itself in its community through its robust mobile health program. On this episode of The Safety Net Pulse, we get to hear about the program's origin, activities, challenges, and future direction in an insightful conversation with its leaders.

More mobile health resources:

• Report: Delivering Care Beyond Hospital Walls: Best Practices in Mobile Health
• Webinar: Strengthening Mobile Health Programs at Essential Hospitals

Cardiac rehab plays a huge role in the outcomes for cardiac patients. But getting this care can be difficult in rural settings. Essential Hospital TMC Health in Tucson, Arizona knows this firsthand. Their Heart Close to Home program has helped to close this gap in care and improve access. We hear from their experts on how this program was implemented.

We sit down with experts to discuss the mechanics of local funding for hospitals and how the looming Medicaid cuts will impact this funding in the future.

You can learn more by downloading our brief on the topic here: Public Funds Sustain Essential Hospitals.