Table of Contents
Features
8
Cover Story
Patient Insights
Consumer segmentation is a business strategy long used in the retail world. Here’s how several hospitals and health systems are adapting it to better understand their patients, improve care and meet the demands of population health management. | By Lola Butcher
13
Governance
History Lessons
The first hospital trustees in America — or what would soon become the United States of America — faced challenges that sound surprisingly similar to what today’s board members encounter. What questions were top of mind in the 1750s and what lessons do they hold for you today? | By Jim Rice
16
Technology
Safer, Smaller, Smarter
Trustees must understand how new technology can shape and advance strategy. Does your strategic plan include a clinical technology section to ensure that it involves an understanding of technology’s risks, requirements and dependencies? | By Anthony J. Montagnolo
26
Center Voices
Active Board Succession
Boards tend to take a passive stance on recruiting and preparing new members. Here are some practical rules of thumb to get your board in an intentional frame of mind for improved succession practices. | By James Gauss and Jena Abernathy
Departments
2 From the Editor
A lot of people are calling the current goings-on in health care a “revolution,” and there’s no doubt a lot of big, big changes are underway. But as history demonstrates, health care revolutions are nothing new.
4 Update
IBM Watson Health has made a big leap into predictive analytics and has formed clinical partnerships with organizations including the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic to harness the explosion of health care data.
5 Memo from COG
A new guide from the American Hospital Association’s Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative outlines four steps for hospitals to improve behavioral health.
Leadership
6 Practical Matters
Competition, finance reform and market changes have made the traditional approach to CEO succession planning outdated. What traits are today’s best-in-class boards considering when hiring a new CEO?
Operations
19 Executive Briefing
Seven foundational strategies can help hospitals and health systems implement new care and payment models that are flexible to meet the differing needs of their communities.
Equity of Care
23 AHA Voices
Trustees should ensure their hospitals take the #123forEquityPledge to Act, a nationwide effort to reduce health care disparities.
Governance
24 Viewpoint
“Generative governance” opens the door for boards to think more creatively and tap into the collective wisdom of the group — and maybe even reinvent their organizations.
Health Care Data
28 Dashboard
Hospital-led ACOs proliferate • More Americans over 100 • Are we facing a physician shortage? • Employer-based insurance holds steady