American Hospital Association - American Hospital Association

The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a professional association that seeks to promote quality health care provision by hospitals and health care networks through public policy and providing information about health care and health administration to health care providers and the public. Founded in 1898 with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C., the AHA hosts a Resource Center with over 47,000 books on health care (some services fee based) and maintains a Health Planning and Administration (HEALTH) database that provides current information on health care unrelated to clinical treatment. Membership includes close to 5,000 organizations and 37,000 individuals.

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, where 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 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 organization adopted its present name. Membership was 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

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 Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA)
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM)
• Association for Community Health Improvement (ACHI)
• Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE)
• Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM)
• Association for Healthcare Volunteer Resource Professionals (AHVRP)
• At Large AHA Membership for Healthcare Management/Consulting Professionals
• Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy (SHCA)
• Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD)