Hospital Care And Access Episodes

Today: Ben Lopman, professor at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, discusses the new Vaccine Impact Map. Later, Bryan Patenaude, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, breaks down the financial realities of measles outbreaks and why even relatively small outbreaks can carry massive costs.

At this year’s ASTHO Spring Leadership Forum, Gaafar Uherbelau, advisor to the president of Palau and former minister of Health and Human Services, shared the story behind a long-awaited solution to a quiet but growing challenge in public health. Palau’s new transition facility is designed for individuals who are medically cleared to leave the hospital but have nowhere to go or no one to care for them. What sounds like a simple fix is actually the result of decades of cultural shifts, resource c...

What do infection prevention in dialysis clinics and hurricane response in the Caribbean have in common? More than you might think. This episode explores how culture, leadership, and coordination shape health outcomes, whether in a treatment chair or a disaster zone. First, Shalini Nair, a senior analyst of infectious disease at ASTHO, breaks down the growing concern around dialysis-related infections and what CDC’s Making Dialysis Safer for Patients Coalition is doing to address it. She shares frontline-informed strategies that health departments and facilities can use right now: building a “see it, say it” culture of safety, using short, role-specific training and real-time coaching, and ensuring visible leadership support that reinforces infection prevention as everyone’s responsibility. Then, the focus shifts to disaster response with Maggie Nilz, senior analyst of preparedness at ASTHO, and a volunteer with Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization.

Behind every public health response are two make-or-break factors: the people doing the work and the systems that help them work together. First, Shirley Orr, Executive Director of the Association of Public Health Nurses,, discusses the Public Health Nursing Workforce Learning Lab Series Session 5 with insights from PH WINS, the nation’s only survey of the state and local public health workforce, which reached nearly 50,000 professionals. The data paints a detailed picture of who makes up today’...

Community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in bridging the gap between health systems and the communities they serve, especially in rural and underserved areas. In this episode, ASTHO Senior Director of Population Health, Alex Kearly, explains who CHWs are, how they build trust and address both health and social needs, and why Medicaid reimbursement can help make these roles sustainable.

As flu cases climb across the country and pediatric deaths rise, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, ASTHO member and Michigan’s chief medical executive, joins us to break down what this flu season means for families, health agencies, and health care systems.

Patricia Tilley, associate commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and an ASTHO member, discusses New Hampshire’s Mission Zero; Dr. Stephen Lee, the executive director of the National Alliance of State and...

Ben Gamache, policy consultant for the Office of Health Workforce Development at the Department of Health Care Access and Information, explains why California has created a new position; Dr. Lisa Villarroel, chief medical officer for Public Health at...