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HHC Receives Prestigious Honor from The American Hospital Association

July 15, 2025

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Hartford HealthCare is the 2025 recipient of the AHA Quest for Quality Prize. The AHA Quest for Quality Prize is presented annually to recognize exceptional health care leadership and innovation in improving quality and advancing health in America’s communities. It was first awarded in 2002.

Hartford HealthCare’s mantra, “the best at getting better,” is evident in the entire health care system’s unwavering commitment to excellence in health care, emphasis on teamwork, high-reliability training and a deeply ingrained quality methodology. Hartford HealthCare demonstrates strong leadership involvement in quality through a series of impactful programs reinforcing a culture of safety, accountability and patient-centered care.

The Best at Getting Better

In 2017, Hartford HealthCare’s seven hospitals were far from leading in safety when the Connecticut health system set an ambitious goal: every hospital would achieve an A rating in safety from the Leapfrog Group.

Within five years, each of the hospitals earned an A grade. But Jeffrey Flaks, the system’s president and CEO, was not content to leave it at that.

“We talk every day, not about aspiring to be the best, but aspiring to be the best at getting better,” he says. “We are obsessed with continuous improvement and our 45,000 colleagues who produced these really extraordinary results challenge ourselves to learn from others, to identify new and better ways to do things and to work to reimagine health care constantly.”

That focus on patient safety generated a 70% reduction in hospital-acquired infections between 2015 and 2023. At the end of fiscal 2023, Hartford HealthCare’s Serious Safety Event Rate was an exceptional 0.21 per 10,000 adjusted patient days.

Flaks attributes the progress in patient safety to a culture change supported by new leaders — Stephanie Calcasola, RN, chief quality officer, and Ajay Kumar, MD, chief clinical officer — who were given the mandate and the freedom to do what was necessary.

Among other things, the system’s recruitment process was changed to include questions about safety behaviors and emotional intelligence in candidate interviews to ensure that new hires are aligned with Hartford HealthCare’s safety culture. All employees, clinical and nonclinical, undergo high-reliability organization (HRO) training — dubbed “Safety Starts with Me” — as part of their onboarding process.

“Consistent messaging is essential to driving culture change,” says Dr. Kumar. “Stephanie has clearly communicated goals and expectations across the system and has been a strong advocate for Just Culture. Her leadership has fostered an environment where safety events can be reported comfortably and constructively.”

Indeed, Calcasola celebrates the fact that staff members reported 8,069 safety events in 2023, a 48% increase over that of 2021. “We highlight colleagues who have experienced a near-miss event and mitigated harm, and we also showcase when bad things happen,” she says. “You learn from errors and our colleagues believe that, by reporting events, we are putting the patient at the center and the organization is going to address the situation from a systematic point of view.”

You are Never Alone

Another element of Hartford HealthCare’s culture is underscored by a massive sign in the main lobby of the flagship Hartford Hospital: You Are Not Alone. Flaks was inspired to order the sign after frequently hearing his physician colleagues make an important point during recruiting visits with new clinicians. “Across every discipline, at one time or another, I would hear: “‘Look, if you come here, you’re never alone,’” he says.

The physicians were talking about the spirit of teamwork and support that clinicians receive from the health system and one another. But because of the prominent sign, the words have grown to extend the “we’re in this together” sentiment to staff, the broader community and, most importantly, patients and their families.

“It could be the most intimidating or most vulnerable moment of their life, but when someone enters our care, they are never alone from that point forward,” Flaks says.

Improving the quality of care is a core focus of the system’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI), one of the largest and best- equipped medical simulation centers in the country. Supporting both internal and external learners and medical-device developers, CESI attracts more than 21,000 individuals and trainees each year.

The facility, with 53,000 square feet of space, serves as both a training hub and a testing ground for innovative ideas, reinforcing Hartford HealthCare’s commitment to adopting new technologies and to continuous improvement on health care’s long-standing challenges.

For example, when Calcasola and Dr. Kumar set out to minimize catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), CESI was equipped with mannequins that featured a range of enlarged prostates to allow nurses to practice the real-life situations they deal with. “We trained 96% of the critical care nurses and reduced CAUTIs by 30% in the 5-month period,” Dr. Kumar says.

The system’s Clinical Care Redesign (CCR) program has also become embedded in Hartford HealthCare’s culture. Quality and cost data are reviewed side-by-side to identify opportunities to reduce variations in care, ensure that best-evidence practices are being used and analyze costs with an eye to improving value, Calcasola says. That means eliminating un- necessary labs and imaging, adhering to Choosing Wisely guidance and standardizing protocols.

The work is accomplished by, among other things, achieving consensus among clinical teams across the organization on specific priorities. When appropriate, nurses and physicians participate in contract negotiations with vendors to make sure supply chain decisions support CCR initiatives.

For example, Hartford HealthCare saves about $1.7 million a year since spine surgeons across the system came to a consensus that a certain biologic agent has the best outcome for patients undergoing spine surgery and, therefore, will be used consistently.

Another win came from the system’s focus on appropriate blood utilization as a way to limit potential side effects while reducing unnecessary costs. “A physician champion created a tagline — ‘Why two if one will do?’ — that resonated with nurses and physicians because it reminds them that blood utilization is a patient safety issue,” Calcasola says. “It was a proud moment when we saw people start quoting that.”

In operation for many years, the redesign program is on track to remove $65 million in unnecessary costs in the current fiscal year.

“To have 45,000 people who know what CCR means and why we are doing it is quite a remarkable achievement,” Dr. Kumar says. “And that shows why the system has been able to move the needle on things we really pay attention to.”

Hartford HealthCare’s innovations to improve quality include the artificial intelligence-enabled HHC 24/7 app that allows patients to connect with real-life clinicians for a primary care encounter at any time. “One of the aspects of the quality is access; if patients don’t have access, they don’t have quality,” Dr. Kumar says. “Through this 24/7 virtual clinic, anybody can get a primary care opinion, and we are seeing well over 100 patients every day.”

Accolades and Recognition

Hartford HealthCare has been consistently recognized for quality and safety and among the best in the Northeast for hospital safety.

Some of the more recent accolades include:

  • Perfect “A” grade for safety for every one of Hartford Health Care’s seven hospitals from the Leapfrog Group, an independent safety watchdog agency.
    • The only health system in New England, New York and New Jersey that achieved uniform “A” grades, and one of three in the U.S
  • Best in the U.S. — Perfect rating in all cardiothoracic categories from the Society for Thoracic Surgery (STS).
    • Of the handful of hospitals across the U.S. with perfect ratings, Hartford Hospital is number one in the nation for mitral-valve surgery based on STS composite data and ranked second in the nation for all five cardiothoracic categories measured by STS.
  • Best in the U.S. — Hartford HealthCare’s Transplant Program at Hart-ford Hospital had the best one-year kidney graft sur¬vival rate in the nation.
    • The program has the highest overall functionality one year after transplant of any similar program in the country.
  • Best in New England — Infection Prevention — The only health system in New England to meet the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services high standards for significantly reducing hospital-acquired infections.
  • Medicare Star Ratings — Best in Connecticut — The U.S. government uses a star system to rate key quality measures. Hartford HealthCare earned the highest average rating (4 stars) of any health system in Connecticut. Hartford HealthCare ranks in the top 10 in all the Northeast.
  • Healthgrades Awards — Most in Connecticut — Hartford HealthCare has earned 56 total awards and 5-star ratings. Healthgrades, a national evaluator, awards hospitals for quality and safety in a range of specialties based solely on clinical outcomes.
  • Fortune list of America’s Most Innovative Companies — Hartford HealthCare named as one of the most innovative companies, awarded for product innovation, process innovation and innovation culture.
  • Modern Healthcare’s Innovators Award — Hartford HealthCare recognized for groundbreaking efforts in transforming healthcare through innovation and artificial intelligence (AI).