Making an Impact in 2010

Today, more than 65 years after the American Hospital Association commissioned our first study, the Health Research & Educational Trust is taking a leading role in helping hospitals navigate the changing health care environment. As the research and educational affiliate of the AHA, HRET actively synthesizes and translates research into actionable knowledge, strategies, and tools that improve the delivery of health care by hospitals and providers in the communities they serve.

Working with national partners, state hospital associations, and funders, HRET engages hospitals and other health care organizations to focus on key questions in the following areas of our research agenda:

• Quality/Cost/Disparities: Management research to provide operational advice on improving quality, reducing costs, and eliminating disparities.
• Care Coordination: Management and policy research to identify, test, and evaluate best practices in care coordination.
• Leadership/Governance:Management research to support leadership and governance in improvement.
• Payment Reform: Policy research to develop, test, and evaluate new models of payment reform.
• Translational Research: To identify and execute strategies and methods that facilitate disseminating and implementing research findings, knowledge, tools, and best practices.
• Quantitative Research: To analyze secondary data associated with health care performance across multiple dimensions.

In addition to leading more than 25 applied research projects, HRET also stewards the AHA's strategic platform on accelerating performance improvement, Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence. HPOE develops evidence-based tools and guides, offers leadership development through fellowships and networks, and engages hospitals in national improvement projects. The HPOE website, www.hpoe.org, provides numerous case studies as well as links to other initiatives, toolkits, and organization websites-all to disseminate proven practices, drive performance improvement in quality and efficiency, and support delivery system transformation at the local level.

Through our AHA affiliation, HRET accesses valuable resources, data, and thought leadership, and serves the research and information needs of the hospital field. Through our work with state hospital associations and partners like the Commonwealth Fund, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HRET advances ideas and practices beneficial to health care practitioners, institutions, consumers, and society at large.

The current era of change in the health care field presents tremendous opportunities along with challenges. Our 35-plus HRET team will keep working to identify and research relevant issues in the field and provide the resources and tools needed by hospitals and health systems to improve the delivery of patient care. Thank you for the privilege of working with you to further our mission. 

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