The Safety Net Pulse

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.