May 11 through May 17 marks National Hospital Week, a time to recognize and honor the dedicated professionals working at hospital and health systems who tirelessly provide 24/7/365 care to patients and communities across the country.
Hospitals are the heart of our communities. With more than 5,000 hospitals and health systems nationwide, hospital workers deliver high-quality, lifesaving care to people from all walks of life, at all hours. From routine checkups to complex surgeries, healthcare professionals offer around-the-clock services and stand ready to help every patient who walks through their doors.
America’s hospitals and health systems go beyond the care they provide to patients — they are also centers of innovation that pioneer new treatments, improve clinical outcomes, train the next generation of caregivers, and upgrade patient safety standards at scale. This past year, several Coalition Honor Roll hospitals achieved groundbreaking milestones.
- Sanford Health, the nation’s largest rural health system, launched one of the first hospital-at-home programs tailored for rural communities. The program delivers acute hospital-level care in patients’ homes, expanding access and improving outcomes for those in hard-to-reach areas.
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center set a world record in 2024, performing 174 adult and pediatric heart transplants—the most ever in a single year. The center has become a national destination for high-risk patients, leveraging advanced organ preservation technologies to improve outcomes.
- Surgeons at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles performed the first-ever robot-assisted microsurgical head and neck cancer reconstruction in the U.S., heralding a new era of precision in complex reconstructive surgery.
- A team at Duke Health Children’s Hospital in North Carolina completed the world’s first living mitral valve replacement using donor valves from an adolescent heart transplant recipient—saving the lives of two other children.
- Arkansas Children’s Hospital pioneered the first robotic-assisted “Shilla” growth guidance surgery for pediatric scoliosis, minimizing invasiveness while supporting spinal development in young patients with scoliosis.
- AdventHealth Orlando, in partnership with Rothman Orthopaedics, performed the world’s first shoulder replacement surgery using the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality system. The headset provided real-time surgical prompts, marking a bold step in augmented-reality assisted care.
These are just a few examples of how doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals at America’s hospitals and health systems deliver high-quality, affordable, and accessible care to every community.
This National Hospital Week, we celebrate not only the compassion and dedication of our health professionals but also the groundbreaking innovations that are transforming the future of care. At the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, we’re proud to support and advocate for policies that protect patient access and encourage innovative transformations of care.