America’s Essential Hospitals honors six standout member programs

America’s Essential Hospitals named six hospitals as 2026 Gage Award winners and honorees at its annual meeting in Minneapolis. The programs were recognized for measurable progress in quality improvement, population health and operational excellence across care for patients, trainees and communities.

Why it matters: - The Gage Awards spotlight hospital programs that are producing measurable results in maternal health, behavioral health, chronic care access and hospital operations. - The recognition also helps spread approaches that other essential hospitals can adapt, which can influence care delivery beyond the six winning programs.

What happened: - America’s Essential Hospitals announced the 2026 Gage Award winners at VITAL2026, the association’s annual meeting in Minneapolis. - Six member hospitals were recognized for work in health care quality, population health and operational excellence. - The awards covered two winners and four honorable mentions across three categories.

The details: - Denver Health in Denver won the Award for Quality Improvement for the OB Perinatal Addiction Recovery program, or OB PEAR. - OB PEAR integrates substance use disorder screening, treatment and care coordination into routine prenatal and postpartum care to reduce maternal morbidity. - From May 2024 to August 2025, the program identified 136 at-risk patients through harm reduction efforts and distributed 174 naloxone kits. - Standardized workflows connected 97% of patients who screened positive for substance use disorder to care. - Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis received a Quality Improvement honorable mention for RISE, or Resident Integrated Support Environment. - RISE aims to lower suicide rates and untreated illness among physician trainees by offering integrated primary care, psychiatric and psychological services, and financial counseling. - SBH Health System in the Bronx won the Award for Population Health for the SBH Health and Wellness Center. - The center addresses income inequality, housing instability, food insecurity, neighborhood safety concerns and limited safe places for physical activity. - The site includes 314 affordable housing units, including 94 units for high Medicaid users and people who have experienced homelessness. - The center also includes a medically based fitness center, a rooftop farm and other amenities designed to shift care upstream. - Since implementation, all 314 affordable housing units have been occupied. - Gym membership increased from zero to 1,023 members. - Monthly food pantry distribution doubled, and patient satisfaction increased. - TMC Health in Tucson received a Population Health honorable mention for Hearts Close to Home. - The program expands access to cardiac rehabilitation in rural communities through telehealth infrastructure and real-time clinical oversight from TMC cardiac rehabilitation specialists, alongside in-person nursing support at local sites. - UK HealthCare in Lexington won the Award for Operational Excellence for the EmPATH program, a 24/7 psychiatric emergency observation unit. - EmPATH is designed to replace emergency department boarding for people in behavioral health crisis. - The treatment-first model includes embedded social work, on-site community mental health services and transportation, and a co-located long-acting injectable clinic. - In the program’s first year, inpatient psychiatric admissions fell by 63.5%, 30-day readmissions to the state psychiatric hospital decreased by 13%, and ED boarding time dropped by 92.1%. - NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in New York received an Operational Excellence honorable mention for its Inpatient Lean Team. - The initiative is designed to improve patient flow and inpatient capacity by reclaiming unusable beds, accelerating discharges and room turnover, prioritizing interfacility transfers and supporting real-time problem solving across teams.

Between the lines: - The winning programs share a common theme: they move care closer to patients, reduce avoidable delays and build support around social and behavioral health needs. - The results are especially relevant for safety-net hospitals, where limited resources and high-acuity populations make operational gains and upstream interventions especially valuable. - America’s Essential Hospitals framed the awards as a way to recognize mission-driven problem solving and help spread practices that work.

What’s next: - America’s Essential Hospitals said readers can learn more through its report, video profiles on YouTube and the association’s podcast, The Safety Net Pulse. - The honored programs may serve as models for other hospitals seeking similar gains in access, flow and outcomes.

The bottom line: - The 2026 Gage Awards highlight how essential hospitals are pairing innovation with measurable performance gains in some of health care’s hardest-to-solve areas.