Twelve hospitals and health systems were recognized for outstanding work in quality improvement, population health and operational excellence by America’s Essential Hospitals.
The Gage Awards, America’s Essential Hospitals recognizes member hospitals and systems for successful projects in quality of care, population health and operational excellence, according to its website. The awards are designed to promote the spread of best practices and innovative programs.
Quality improvement awards recognize data-driven programs that systematically work to achieve measurable gains in efficiency, effectiveness, performance, accountability and outcomes in quality of services or processes. Population health awards recognize programs that improve health outcomes for a defined population or community social and economic factors that influence health. Operational excellence awards recognize the implementation of programs that have a direct link between organizational transformation and improved clinical outcomes.
Here are the 12 hospitals and health systems Gage Award winners in 2026.
Denver Health | Quality Improvement Winner
Denver Health’s OB perinatal addiction recovery program integrates substance use disorder screening, treatment, and care coordination into routine prenatal and postpartum care to reduce maternal morbidity. Serving a population where 85% of pregnant patients are publicly insured and nearly 12% have SUD, the program expanded provider capacity from one to 30 trained clinicians across 15 clinics, reduced treatment wait times to under a week, and achieved 96% screening rates with no racial or ethnic disparities. Over 60% of patients were discharged opioid-free, average cesarean-delivery opioid prescriptions dropped from 52.7 to 18.4 morphine milligram equivalents, and staff empathy toward patients with SUD rose from 40% to 85%.
Hennepin Healthcare | Quality Improvement Honorable Mention
The Minneapolis-based system built its resident integrated support environment program to remove barriers to physical and mental healthcare for physician trainees, who face demanding schedules, licensure fears, and stigma that prevent them from seeking help. Launched in 2019, RISE provides confidential, same-day or next-day access to primary care, psychiatry, psychology and financial counseling, all billed through standard insurance to remain self-sustaining. Annual visits grew from approximately 200 to over 1,000, more than 80% of trainees accessed RISE during training, and over 95% of those in the primary care program met all evidence-based preventive care criteria.
Parkland Health | Quality Improvement Highlighted Program
The Dallas-based system redesigned its oncology acute care clinic using a data-driven, human-centered approach to increase use of the clinic as an alternative to the emergency department for cancer patients managing acute chemotherapy symptoms. A multidisciplinary, 20-member workgroup standardized messaging, shifted patient education to post-infusion touchpoints, and created culturally appropriate materials in English and Spanish. Early results show avoidable hospitalizations within 30 days of chemotherapy fell from 15% to 10%, call volumes tripled, more than half of calls converted to same-day OAC visits and patient satisfaction reached 90%.
Onvida Health | Quality Improvement Highlighted Program
The Yuma, Ariz.-based system’s hospital readmission reduction program, launched in 2012, addresses the unique challenges of rural Yuma County by uniting clinical, educational and social support into a nurse-led post-discharge model for Medicare patients with chronic illness. An interdisciplinary team including nurse practitioners, dietitians, pharmacists and social workers conducts follow-up visits, medication reconciliation and community referrals to keep high-risk patients safely at home. In 2024, only 3.99% of program patients were readmitted within 30 days compared to 14.3% of all Medicare patients systemwide, 96% of participants remained at home post-discharge and the Medicare readmission penalty fell from 1.69% per patient in 2017 to just 0.05% in 2023.
SBH Health System | Population Health Winner
The New York City-based system converted a hospital-owned parking lot in the Bronx into a comprehensive health and wellness center as part of a $156 million mixed-use development, directly targeting the social determinants of health in one of New York City’s most chronically underserved counties. The 50,000-square-foot facility includes 314 affordable housing units, a medically integrated fitness center, a rooftop farm, a teaching kitchen with a chef and registered dietitian, and targeted programs for stroke recovery, gun violence prevention and Alzheimer’s-friendly fitness. Since opening, all 314 housing units are occupied, gym membership grew from zero to 1,023 members, 300 participants enrolled in the healthy living program with measurable body mass index and strength improvements, and teaching kitchen participants reported a 41% increase in understanding of healthy food choices.
TMC Health | Population Health — Honorable Mention
The Tucson, Ariz.-based system launched Hearts Close to Home to address the fact that only 5% of eligible rural patients in Cochise County participated in cardiac rehabilitation following a cardiac event, against a national average of 34%. The program delivers monitored, evidence-based cardiac rehabilitation via telehealth from TMC’s flagship facility to pilot site Benson Hospital, using real-time clinical oversight by TMC specialists alongside in-person local nursing, behavioral health screening and connections to heart-healthy food resources. Between September 2022 and September 2025, the program achieved an 80% referral-to-enrollment rate, 81% of participants improved functional capacity by at least 40%, 87% maintained healthy blood pressure and participants collectively avoided more than 158,000 miles of travel.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst | Population Health Highlighted Program
The New York City-based hospital launched a 90-day ED follow-up care coordination program in March 2023 to reduce avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations among high-risk patients, many of whom are immigrants and uninsured. Three community liaison workers each manage 30 to 35 patients weekly, providing linkages to primary care, insurance enrollment, housing, food, legal aid and health literacy support. From 2023 to January 2026, only 31% of patients returned to the ED within six months — a 68% reduction — inpatient hospitalizations fell by 58% and the program generated an estimated $25 million in cost savings from prevented visits and admissions.
University Medical Center of El Paso (Texas) | Population Health Highlighted Program
UMC El Paso’s age-friendly health system initiative applies the IHI’s 4Ms framework (what matters, medication, mentation, mobility) to transform care for older adults in one of the most under-resourced urban-rural regions in the country, where 27% of older adults face food insecurity and the primary care physician-to-patient ratio is nearly double the national benchmark. The initiative expanded social needs screening to over 80% of encounters, increased annual wellness visits by 68%, and grew annual referrals for social work, behavioral health, and clinical pharmacy from 1,679 to 3,614 within its first year. A patient family advisory council with four community members over 65 guides program design, and the initiative generated an estimated $232,507 in added value in year one.
UK HealthCare | Operational Excellence Winner
The Lexington, Ky.-based system’s emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment and health, or EmPATH, unit is a 24/7 psychiatric emergency observation unit that replaces traditional ED boarding with a treatment-first model for behavioral health crises. The unit provides rapid psychiatric evaluation, embedded social work, co-located long-acting injectable services, universal infectious disease screening, peer support and daily interdisciplinary huddles with community mental health partners. In its first year, EmPATH served more than 6,000 patients, inpatient psychiatric admissions declined 63.5%, ED boarding time dropped 92.1%, 30-day readmissions to the state psychiatric hospital decreased 13% and reduced sitter use generated over $250,000 in annual savings.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue | Operational Excellence — Honorable Mention
Following severe post-pandemic ED overcrowding — with boarding times exceeding 23 hours by early 2024 — the New York City-based hospital launched an Inpatient Lean Team to address systemic bottlenecks in patient flow. The initiative uses daily multidisciplinary evaluations of bed availability, streamlined discharge processes with early clinician orders and mobile electronic health record rovers, a “transfer-back” program to return patients to local hospitals after specialty care and weekly performance metric tracking. By August 2025, ED boarding time fell to under five hours, the National ED Overcrowding Score improved from 200 (dangerously overcrowded) to 9 (not crowded), and average inpatient length of stay declined from 9.1 to 7.9 days.
University Medical Center of El Paso | Operational Excellence Highlighted Program
UMC El Paso’s length-of-stay improvement initiative, launched in March 2023, used real-time dashboards, structured 12-week improvement cycles and expanded weekend ancillary coverage to safely reduce inpatient stays and relieve ED congestion without adding physical capacity. A provider dashboard comparing individual LOS against peer benchmarks reinforced transparency and accountability at the clinician level, while a discharge lounge improved throughput. Average LOS declined from 5.99 days to 5.29 days while monthly admissions increased from 1,357 to 1,471, and the system’s external LOS Index in the Vizient Clinical Database improved from 1.23 to 1.07.
Harris Health | Operational Excellence Highlighted Program
The Bellaire, Texas-based system’s home division centralizes three home-based care programs — hospital at home, home-based primary care and outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy — under a unified budget and operational structure to decompress hospitals and deliver acute and chronic care outside traditional settings. Launched in 2024, the division deploys mobile care teams with home-based phlebotomy, remote monitoring and Epic’s MyChart Bedside portal, supported by integrated nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and case managers. In 18 months, the program saved more than 1,000 inpatient bed days, reduced readmissions to 8% compared to a hospital average of 12% to 15%, and achieved patient satisfaction exceeding 90%.
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