Jarrard Vice President Perri duGard Owens attended the event.
EVENT: NAHSE 41st Annual Educational Conference
WHERE & WHEN: Los Angeles | October 7-9, 2026
The National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) gathered healthcare leaders in Los Angeles under a fitting theme: “Lights, Camera, Action! The Time Is Now: Transformation, Innovation, and Policy Change.”
Across conversations about AI, digital transformation, workforce and health equity, one question kept surfacing: Healthcare knows it needs to change. Are organizations ready to act?
Some of the most powerful conversations came back to public health, community investment and the people closest to the work. A CEO panel on future-ready leadership moderated by Michelle Gaskill-Hames of Kaiser Permanente, challenged executives to think beyond institutional walls and reconsider what innovation, partnership and leadership require.
Three takeaways stood out.
Community investment is a healthcare strategy
James “Jay” E.Y. Jackson, CEO of Alameda Health System, described how preserving access increasingly requires collaboration among institutions that might otherwise view one another as competitors.
Facing closure, St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, California, needed support beyond what Alameda could provide independently. Partnerships with Stanford, local government and community institutions helped sustain the safety-net hospital. Jackson emphasized that when a hospital closes, its patients don’t simply disappear. Their needs remain, often adding pressure to neighboring providers.
He also described Alameda’s investments in mobile care, school-based dental services and home-based patient support.
Bottom line: Healthcare’s responsibility extends beyond treating patients who arrive at its doors. And as financial and policy pressures intensify, stronger institutional and community partnerships will be essential to preserving access.
The workforce is infrastructure. Invest in the people.
Michellene Davis, president and CEO of National Medical Fellowships, challenged leaders to think about workforce development beyond recruitment: We conduct exit interviews, but how many organizations conduct stay interviews?
Davis urged investment in professional development, mentorship and environments where employees can thrive. She also described National Medical Fellowships’ support for pathways into medicine, including opportunities for students committed to serving communities that have historically experienced barriers to care.
Dr. Imamu “Mu” Tomlinson, CEO of Vituity, argued that meaningful innovations will emerge from the people delivering care every day, if executives flatten hierarchies, share decision-making authority and listen.
His examples included Vituity’s outreach serving people experiencing homelessness and care models designed around meeting patients where they are.
Innovation, he said, doesn’t always require sophisticated technology. Sometimes it requires empowering people to solve the problems they see firsthand.
The right story, told by the right people, can move healthcare forward.
For healthcare communicators, some of the most relevant insights came from the intersection of leadership, technology and trust.
Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, CEO of Grapevine Health, questioned whether organizations spend enough time explaining the science, technologies and decisions they expect communities to trust. Without understanding, skepticism can persist.
Tomlinson challenged healthcare leaders to tell stories that reach people who don’t already agree with them: Connect healthcare to culture, engage trusted community voices and embrace platforms where people exchange information.
Community influencers, he added, including artists and cultural figures, may communicate health messages more effectively than institutional voices.
Building trust requires more than accurate information or a compelling narrative. It requires understanding the audience, recognizing whose voice carries credibility and making the message meaningful in people’s everyday lives.
What we’re taking forward
NAHSE reinforced the connection between organizational readiness, communication and community trust.
Healthcare leaders are confronting enormous pressure to transform. Yet the ability to move forward will depend on something foundational: Are we investing in the relationships, people and partnerships that make meaningful change possible? After all, the transformation agenda is only as strong as the relationships behind it.
