BY John Hawkins, President, THA It wasn’t long ago that overwhelming numbers of people across Texas and the nation – on all sides of the political spectrum – knew and acknowledged that vaccines prevent diseases. Seventy years ago, polio crippled thousands of American children. Before the polio vaccine, the coffin-like “iron lung” confined patients who were suffering late-stage paralysis from the disease. As we all know, Jonas Salk’s work helped put an end to that...

BY John Hawkins, CEO, THA   An unfortunate reality in today’s world of fast-spreading information is, well, misinformation. With the internet and social media affording a potentially unvetted voice to just about everyone, misinformation is – ironically enough – a fact of life. While it can’t be stopped, it can be refuted. And these days, hospitals need the truth out there as much as any industry does. They are sites of life-saving care, and it’s...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, THA Three years after the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals have started to put the pieces back together and take inventory of COVID-19’s wide-ranging, long-lasting impact on health care. That process is ongoing and will be for some time. But a recent Texas Hospital Association workforce survey reinforces and quantifies one fact that’s become abundantly clear: Hospitals are facing a breaking point for their workforce. Now, it’s been no secret that...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   Earlier this month, the Texas Legislature gaveled in its 88th session, and what’s going on at our state Capitol will occupy a great deal of hospitals’ attention for the next four-plus months. If you’re a conscientious health care provider who wants the best possible care environment for your facility, city, and state, I’m sure you’ll be following along, too.   But also this month, in Washington, D.C.,...

By John Hawkins, President/CEO, THA   As the pandemic tapers off, the need for hospitals has not. With surges of respiratory illnesses inundating emergency departments, hospitals – and hospital workers – remain our most unwavering line of defense.   But even as hospitals continue to support their communities in the most urgent and visible ways – the ways everyone associates them with – we should keep in mind the more stealth impacts that hospitals make...

By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association We’ve all heard about bad things coming in threes. It’s a superstition that has persisted across generations and cultures. Any time three catastrophes happen to fall on top of each other, some point to it as a product of that old adage. There’s no scientific evidence of its validity, of course. But this flu season, it’s very possible that one of those validating trios of unfortunate events could...

By John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   Chances are when you’re reading this, the 2022 election will be in its final stretch. Maybe that’s good news for you, particularly if you’re tired of the round-the-clock TV ad saturation and political posturing that always marks an election year.   But for hospitals and the Texas Hospital Association, once Nov. 8 comes and goes, and the winners of state elections have been declared – including for...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   As health care continues to sit at the front of the public consciousness – as it has since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – patients and providers alike continue to find themselves characters in a story as persistent as it is frustrating.   Generally, it goes something like this: Patients seek needed care. Hospitals and other providers pursue the required steps to deliver that care and...

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association   With no shortage of polarizing issues circulating in Texas right now, one thing is clear no matter your politics: Mental health is top of mind. The stress of an ongoing pandemic layered with racial tensions, school shootings, divisive abortion laws, and a turbulent economy have pushed behavioral health front and center.   It’s an unfortunate circumstance, and it’s clear that almost everyone is hurting in some way....

BY John Hawkins, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association The passage of time takes the sting out of painful memories. It’s a coping mechanism that allows us to move on from trauma and move forward with hope. As the pandemic moves toward second-page news, it’s hard to recall the early days of intense uncertainty, rapid-fire disease spread, school closures, mixed mask messages, travel bans, hand sanitizer rationing, and an abundance of panic as the country embarked on...