Contents
Features
8 Cover story
Nurses on Board
With a wealth of patient care experience, nurses can bring a much-needed perspective to the hospital board. Hospitals with RNs as trustees have richer board discussions and improved performance in both quality and safety, as well as higher retention rates for staff nurses. | Susan Reinhard
12 Design
Soothing Spaces
Hospitals are taking a new look at how they design facilities for people who are seriously ill or near death. These spaces should be aesthetically designed to help patients and families cope with their situations and provide private places to talk with members of the care team. | Amy Eagle
17 Governance
At the American Hospital Association Rural Health Care Leadership Conference last month in Phoenix, speakers urged hospital board members to play a larger role in their rural facilities than they traditionally have as new care models take hold and value-based payment methods become more common. | Brian Frankie
18 Executive Briefing
As the American health care system, originally built for illness, shifts to one driven by wellness, hospitals will have a unique role to play in making good decisions easier for patients and helping to build community infrastructures that support health and healthy choices. A new report from the AHA’s Committee on Governance examines the next generation of community health.
Departments
2 From the Editor
In our lives, in our careers and in our roles as health care advocates, we would do well to heed one grandmother’s sage advice: Don’t wish your life away. Every moment matters.
3 Update
In this month’s cover story, we look at why nurses make valuable board members. This Update article considers why they can make effective CEOs, too.
Access
4 Memo from COG
A task force created by the AHA board of trustees has released a report that considers the challenges facing vulnerable communities — both rural and urban — and sets forth a menu of options for confronting those challenges.
6 Governance
Practical Matters
Hospital board members are able to provide transformational leadership in a time of wholesale change. Here are four foundational governance practices they should embrace.
Physician Relations
23 Viewpoint
A trustee at a large health care system argues that board members who oversee how physicians earn privileges at America’s hospitals should move to a system based on physician outcomes and clinical effectiveness.
Management
25 Voices From the Field
Transformational change in health care has significantly increased the workload for hospital CEOs. Maybe it’s time for hospitals — like the political and corporate fields — to hire chiefs of staff to take on part of the load. Here’s what board members should consider.