Board Meeting Evaluation
Reprinted from 47 Healthcare Executive SEPT/OCT 2005
Board self-assessment is widely recognized as a fundamental building block of continuous governance improvement. For the past 20 years, many healthcare organization governing boards have engaged in full board performance evaluations, often on an annual basis. These evaluations are designed to assess the board’s knowledge of its roles and responsibilities and how well the board as a whole is discharging them.
More recently, hospital and health system governing boards have added a level of evaluation focused on the performance and contributions of individual board members. These assessments are generally conducted at least once during a board member’s term of office and are designed to help individual trustees gauge their own strengths and identify opportunities for improvement. Effective self-evaluations at either the board or trustee level depend on the development of an action plan that identifies areas for performance improvement and specific steps to accomplish it.