Chair File: Gratitude — This Week and Every Week — for Our Hospital Teams

Today is “Our Cup Runneth Over with Gratitude” Day at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado, Kan. Employees are wearing blue and yellow SBA colors and getting a stainless steel cup as a small gift of thanks from their hospital leaders.  

Each weekday of National Hospital Week, the Employee Appreciation Team at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital has planned a themed activity and food freebie recognizing all employees for their contributions every day to advance health in America. 

This year’s overall theme for National Hospital Week is “Inspiring Hope Through Healing.” Our health care professionals across the country certainly have given us an abundance of hope with their courage and dedication. It’s a great week for hospitals and health systems to celebrate the incredible work of employees — from physicians, nurses and other clinicians, environmental services teams, food and nutrition services workers, chaplains, maintenance teams, lab workers, security personnel, interpreters, porters and so many more.

At Providence, we are celebrating National Hospital Week and National Nurses Week with a host of recognition events, leader messages and social media. During this week, we also are observing a moment of silence to honor our nurses and health care workers for their heroic efforts throughout the pandemic and to remember the lives lost and saved from COVID-19. 

The AHA has a number of resources that you can use to show appreciation and support for health care teams and is encouraging hospitals to share photos on social media with the tag #HospitalWeek. Today, AHA, through a collaboration with Musicians on Call, unveiled an original song inspired by stories and reflections of health care employees at AHA member hospitals and health systems. I am inspired by this organization’s vision of a world filled with the healing power of music.    

Even more important during this still-challenging time: Let’s encourage our communities to continue showing gratitude and support to our health care workers by following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, wearing a mask when appropriate and getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

To all those working in America’s hospitals and health systems — thank you for your compassionate service every week and every day of the year.

Rod Hochman, M.D.
AHA Chair