From combatting misinformation to reaching as many patients as possible, these hospital leaders are working to repair their communities' confidence in healthcare.

Trust in providers has eroded in recent years and hospital CEOs are seeing the effects across their organizations. The pandemic may have sparked the decline, but misinformation, politicization, and access disparities have kept the issue front and center.

In HealthLeaders' The Winning Edge for Rebuilding Patient and Public Trust this week, Glencoe Regional Health CEO Ben Davis and Vernon Health CEO David Hartberg shared how they're addressing the challenge through strategies spanning internal culture, community engagement, and operational transparency.

Here are four approaches CEOs are using to restore confidence in their institutions:

Identify trust gaps

Before rebuilding trust, hospital leaders must first recognize where and why it's broken.

Davis and Hartberg emphasized the importance of listening, both formally and informally, to detect early signs of distrust within your organization and in your communities.

Feedback from conversations with staff, patients, civic groups, local influencers, and public forums can surface concerns not captured quantitatively.

"I asked 'who are the informal leaders that are in the community that might not show up on a list somewhere, but they had a large influence?'" Hartberg said. "I was trying to establish those relationships so that I could be seen as a connection from Vernon Health out into the community and vice versa."

Hospital leaders can also utilize data-driven indicators like patient experience surveys, employee engagement scores, and market share shifts to systematically pinpoint trends in satisfaction, morale, and quality.

While trust is not easily measurable, the combination of data-driven insights with human-centered listening can allow CEOs to proactively identify trust gaps and tailor their strategies to address them.

Simplify transparency

Transparency is essential to creating an environment of trust, but too much technical detail can overwhelm patients, which means CEOs must work to strike the right balance with communicating complex medical information.

Davis and Hartberg both acknowledged the importance of simplification to clearly and effectively convey the full message.

"We want to look like the smooth gliding duck on the top of the water," Hartberg said. "They're already dealing with lots of things as patients. They're dealing with pain and confusion and frustration over what's going on in their life."

Leaders should engage in selective public messaging to avoid alarming their community, while also training their staff on communication techniques like AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, Thank You) to make patients feel comfortable.

Using plain language to explain technology and procedures is another way to communicate without overwhelming patients. Hartberg shared an example of a physician at his organization explaining ambient AI listening to a patient by saying, "'I've got my robot friend here… it's going to help me keep track of what we're talking about.'" The plain-language approach helped the patient feel at ease without diving into technical jargon.

Expand access to care

How providers communicate with patients is vital, but that can only happen if they meet them where they are. Without providing necessary access to care, reducing barriers, and reaching underserved populations, organizations risk losing credibility.

"You can't let access slide," Davis said. "That's key to keeping trust within the community—that you have access to the services your communities are depending on you for."

One way both Glencoe Regional Health and Vernon Health have strived for that is through primary care expansion by hiring providers to improve availability. Additionally, Vernon Health is adding a psychiatrist and licensed social worker to meet rising behavioral health needs.

Meanwhile, Glencoe Regional Health has deployed on-site interpreters and bilingual providers to serve its Hispanic population.

Addressing health literacy and social determinants of health like food insecurity also allow organizations to better serve populations.

"We're trying to explore food pantries in our clinics and work with some area high schools to create some food pantries out into the communities," Hartberg said.

Strengthen internal culture

Though public perception often dominates the conversation around trust, hospital CEOs increasingly recognize that rebuilding it starts within their own walls.

A strong internal culture, defined by shared values, psychological safety, and frontline engagement, is not only essential for staff morale, but also directly influences patient experience and community perception.

"We can't be the provider of choice if we're not the employer of choice," Davis said.

To achieve that, Hartberg and Davis emphasized the importance of involving frontline staff in decision-making. Whether it's redesigning workflows, shaping patient experience initiatives, or contributing to strategic planning, staff engagement fosters ownership and trust.

Recognition can also be a powerful tool for reinforcing culture. Hartberg shared how he publicly celebrated a team's emergency care success after receiving a heartfelt call from a former community member. Sharing these stories internally helps staff see the impact of their work and strengthens their connection to the mission.

By investing in internal culture, hospital leaders are laying the foundation for rebuilding trust externally.

Davis said: "It's having great people doing great work caring for our community."

Hospital leaders from across the country will convene in Nashville to share best practices for navigating change in an ever-evolving landscape.

Healthcare continues to face significant economic and regulatory change, forcing hospital decision-makers to strategically adjust to meet the demands of a shifting industry.

For hospital and health system CEOs, the stakes have arguably never been higher for solving workforce challenges, ensuring financial stability, and delivering better care.

At this year's AHA Leadership Summit in Nashville from July 20-22, CEOs and a range of other C-suite executives will get together to discuss innovative approaches to the most prominent pain points facing providers.

Redesigning the workforce

Among their staff, CEOs are confronting persistent burnout, labor shortages, and cultural fatigue, all of which directly impact clinical quality, safety, and the patient experience.

The Summit will spotlight talent retention strategies, workforce transformation, and leadership-led culture resets, with focus on engaging clinicians and rebuilding morale. A featured session, "7 Minutes to Innovation: Care Model and Workforce Redesign," will delve into how new models are reshaping workforce challenges and offer actionable steps for building sustainable care teams.

Rebuilding public trust

In the post-pandemic era, CEOs must also contend with eroded public trust and growing skepticism, both within their organizations and from the communities they serve. The Summit will feature conversations on transparency, internal trust-building, and equity as a leadership imperative.

One of the sessions, "Building Public Trust and Confidence in Health Care," will feature executives guiding fellow leaders on evaluating their current practices, recognizing strengths and gaps, and effectively communicating their hospital's story.

Revamping financial models

There's no shortage of financial pressures pressing down on hospitals and health systems, creating a difficult environment to operate within. Margin compression, inflation, and evolving reimbursement models are forcing tough decisions at every level.

Hear from leaders in "Building High-Performing Organizations: Strategies for Sustainable Operations," in which panelists will share how their organizations have overcome financial challenges with cost-effective strategies that maintain quality.

Rethinking care delivery

The harsh reality is that traditional healthcare models are no longer viable, whether for today or tomorrow. Care delivery must evolve to drive meaningful change for everyone involved, from patients to providers.

The panel "Designing the Future of Care Delivery" will explore how leaders can balance incremental improvements with transformation to enhance access, affordability, and equity in care delivery, while confronting what that means for the future of healthcare organizations.

HealthLeaders will be in Nashville to deliver on-the-ground coverage and real-time insights from the frontlines of the Summit. Stay tuned for more coverage.

The industry has, for the most part, withstood the economic challenges that have plagued job growth in other sectors.

Healthcare employment remains a consistent engine of growth in the broader economy, even as signs point to a cooling labor market across other industries.

The healthcare sector added 39,200 jobs in June, accounting for more than a quarter of total gains across all industries last month, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is slightly below the 12-month average of 43,000 and a steep decline from the 62,200 jobs added in May, but it reinforces the trend that healthcare continues to outpace many other sectors in hiring demand.

Persistent workforce needs across the continuum of care were reflected in hospitals, ambulatory care, and nursing and residential care facilities leading the way for growth in June.

Hospitals added 16,100 jobs while ambulatory healthcare services contributed 8,700 jobs. Within ambulatory care, physician offices accounted for 3,800 jobs and home healthcare services chipped in 2,800 jobs.

Nursing and residential care’s growth of 14,400 jobs was driven by skilled nursing care facilities delivering 6,800 jobs and continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities for the elderly supplying 5,500 jobs.

Across all industries, the U.S. added 147,000 jobs last month, in line with the monthly gain of 146,000 over the past year and a modest jump from the 139,000 added in May.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, was at 4.1% in June, compared to 4.2% in May, and has remained between 4% and 4.2% since May 2024.

Though the overall job growth and unemployment rate show that the labor market is holding firm, increases in healthcare and state and local government education are covering up for downturn in other sectors.

Federal government, for example, lost 7,000 jobs last month and has seen employment fall by 69,000 since hitting a peak in January. Jobs also dwindled in professional and business services—a white-collar sector—and manufacturing, which each shed 7,000 jobs as well.

Healthcare may be doing well, especially relative to other industries, but it isn’t completely immune to market conditions.

Many hospitals and health systems have taken action to cut labor expenses by instituting hiring freezes and layoffs. Vanderbilt University Medical Center was one of those organizations in June, when it announced it would lay off up to 650 employees as it worked to reduce costs by $300 million.

As labor shortages intensify, Unity Medical Center's CEO is leaning on early pipelines, staff flexibility, and lived experience to enhance recruitment and retention.

Rural hospitals are struggling to stay staffed, making it harder to stay open.

With financial constraints and labor shortages squeezing providers, small facilities often lack the resources or scale to compete for top talent. At Manchester, Tennessee-based Unity Medical Center, however, CEO Martha Henley is proving that a local, personalized approach can help level the playing field.

“We have been very blessed to have a great partnership with our high schools and our secondary schools,” Henley told HealthLeaders. “We have nurses or potential nurses coming in and rotating through. We've allowed some of our staff to go and help teach some of those courses. So that collaborative effort is grooming those people to know that they want to work for us.”

It’s a workforce pipeline rooted in proximity and familiarity, and it’s helping the hospital remain independent and weather a storm that’s closing rural facilities across the country. According to The Chartis Center for Rural Health, 182 rural hospitals have closed or converted to an operating model that excludes inpatient care since 2010, with staffing cited as one of the leading factors.

Henley’s approach of engaging students early, mentoring them through clinical exposure, and giving them space to grow, has since expanded to the other hospitals under her oversight through Java Medical Group, which she also serves as COO.

“If they don't come to work for us, they come to work for someone that is also helping us,” she said, highlighting that cultivating healthcare workers locally strengthens the broader rural health ecosystem.

Re-recruiting from within

The same philosophy carries over once someone joins the team. Rather than locking employees into a single role, Henley encourages cross-training and internal exploration to find the right fit.

“We may hire someone to be a Med Surg nurse and they could be a great nurse, but they just don't love it,” she said. “So if they have the flexibility to cross-train into a surgical department or another area, we can find what they love and they're going to stay.”

Henley says this approach directly combats burnout, which remains a significant post-pandemic threat, especially in smaller facilities that can’t offer scale-based relief. “If their quality of life at home is great, it's going to be reflected in the work as well—and vice versa,” she said.

That strategy also gives Unity a differentiator in a tight labor market, where rural providers often struggle to compete with urban systems offering higher wages and signing bonuses.

“The nursing shortage is real,” Henley said. “We're in competition with some people that have a lot bigger pockets than we do. So one of the things that we focus on is just that flexibility and allowing them to find something they can be passionate about.”

Leadership shaped by the front lines

Henley’s staffing philosophy is rooted in firsthand experience. Her own healthcare career started not in the C-suite, but in the operating room and emergency department. Over the years, she worked as a CNA, scrub tech, ER tech, phlebotomist, and ward clerk—mopping floors and cleaning rooms long before she stepped into a leadership position.

“I've literally done every job in a facility at one point or another,” she said. “That makes it interesting when people go to talk to me.”

That history pays dividends when leading by example. Henley recalled an instance when there was a facility merger and rooms needed to be cleaned, but housekeeping was booked. “I said, ‘Hey guys, we know how to clean the room. I've done this before.’ So I literally put on scrubs, went down and did it for them to show that it takes the village to make all of this work.”

That moment, she noted, helped reinforce to her staff that leadership is shared and that culture matters.

Strategic independence

Unity’s success in workforce development highlights a critical point for other rural hospitals: resilience doesn’t always require large-scale investments, but can instead be achieved by having deep community roots, flexibility, and leadership that understands the day-to-day.

For Henley, it starts with rethinking what it means to be independent. “To be independent does not mean you have to be alone,” she said.

Unity maintains partnerships with larger organizations for specialty care and shared services. For example, the hospital this week announced a clinically integrated alliance with Ascension Saint Thomas to expand specialty services like cardiology, neurosciences, and women’s health, while increasing access to telemedicine services like telestroke.

Meanwhile, the workforce model remains local. Henley encourages her peers to invest in long-term pipelines and to meet talent where they are.

She said: “If you can get involved with the schools, if you can work to develop those relationships with the colleges, you're going to secure your workforce.”