The American Hospital Association (AHA) is an organization that promotes the quality provision of health care by hospitals and health care networks through such efforts as promoting effective public policy and providing information related to health care and health administration to health care providers and the public. Founded in 1898 and hosting offices in Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C., the AHA hosts a Resource Center with more than 47,000 books on health care (some services fee based) and maintains an extensive, frequently updated Health Planning and Administration (HEALTH) database, which provides information related to health care unrelated to clinical treatment. More than 5,600 organizations and 41,000 individuals are members of the AHA.

History

In 1870, there were only about a hundred general hospitals in the United States, but the institution was growing rapidly. Hospital administrators formed an organization called "The Association of Hospital Superintendents of the United States and Canada", which held its first meeting in 1899 in Cleveland, Ohio, in which city seven of the eight superintendents in attendance were based. The organization was promoted by publisher Del Sutton, whose journal The National Hospital Sanitarium Record was adopted by the new group in 1900, gradually coming under control of the organization until it was replaced by the organization's own publication, The Modern Hospital.

In 1906, the growing organization adopted its present name, with membership reaching 450 in 1908. Records of early annual meetings detail some of the conflicts in the emerging hospital culture of Canada and the United States concerning whether hospitals should be governed by physicians or administrators, with laypersons representing a heavy majority.

Personal Membership Groups

Eleven Personal Membership Groups (PMGs) are affiliated societies which fall under the umbrella of the AHA:

• American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE)
• American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES)
• American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA)
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM)
• Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI)
• Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM)
• Association for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (AHVRP)
• Association of Healthcare Administrative Professionals (AHCAP)
• At Large AHA Membership for Healthcare Management/Consulting Professionals
• Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy (SHCA)
• Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD)

References

1. Vogel, 245.
2. Vogel, 244, 245.
3. Vogel, 252.

External links

• American Hospital Association homepage
• American Hospital Association Article- Hospital.com