Articles
Delivery System Transformation, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Becoming a visionary board
Hospital trustees sometimes question how they can determine a strategic future when so much in health care is changing and the future is seemingly unknown and unpredictable. But this is precisely the time when boards must be at their best. Forward-thinking, visionary boards anticipate potential futures. They prepare for and embrace the changes ahead.
Governance Effectiveness
Trustee reappointment
When hospital or health system boards think about key practices that support effective governance, considerations such as board recruitment and selection, orientation and continuing education, and board evaluation often come to mind. Rarely, it seems, does board member reappointment make the list.
Governance Effectiveness, Strategic Planning
Improved joint venture performance through enhanced governance
Joint ventures in healthcare are more diverse and complex, involving partnerships with pharma, medical device companies, and research organizations.
Delivery System Transformation, Strategic Planning
Partnering in the new health care environment
Health care is transforming to a value-based model, with the goals of improved care quality, access and outcomes for consumers, at lower costs. The means of achieving these goals is the effective management of health and health care services over the continuum of a population’s care and service needs.
New competencies are required of hospitals and health systems to thrive in the new environment — clinical integration; consumer, clinical and business intelligence; operational efficiency; purchaser relationships; and optimized network development.
Governance Effectiveness, Strategic Planning, Workforce
Board support: Is it time for dedicated governance leadership?
Trustee talking points
- As hospitals and health systems grow increasingly complex, they are increasingly creating dedicated support staff for their boards.
- Full-time governance leaders can devote themselves to serving and advancing board work and a governance program.
- There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the numbers, responsibilities and titles of governance support staff and leaders.
- A governance leader's qualifications should include interpersonal skills, the appropriate education and a desire to stay on top of the he
Delivery System Transformation, Strategic Planning
Leadership through partnership: Improving community health
In pursuit of its longstanding vision of a "society of healthy communities where all individuals reach their highest potential for health,” the American Hospital Association supports hospitals, health systems and related organizations in engaging in strategic initiatives that together create a path toward advancing health in America.
Financial Oversight, Financial Management, Strategic Planning
Provider-sponsored health plans: Are you ready to take on (more) risk?
Trustee talking points
- Provider-sponsored health plans offer a good way for hospitals and health systems to take on risk as they move toward value-base care.
Delivery System Transformation, Governance Effectiveness, Leadership, Strategic Planning
Collaborative governance the key to improving community health
Health care delivery and payment are undergoing profound change. But embedded in this transformation is a broader focus on improving overall health and quality of life in the communities health care organizations serve.
This expanded purpose is being expressed in a number of ways, including:
Delivery System Transformation, Governance Effectiveness, Operational Excellence, Strategic Planning
Writing an innovation playbook for health system success
Innovation can fuel the organizational agility necessary to achieve breakthrough levels of value and performance in health care. This Workbook describes a four-step process that health system boards and leaders can use to develop a sustainable innovation capability. Drawing techniques and perspectives from health care and other fields, the approach facilitates organization-specific solutions.
Additionally, it enables board members and executive teams to:
Governance Effectiveness, Operational Excellence
Hospital, Health System Boards Need to Find Partners for Community Health
As health care organizations and clinicians join together to address a broader spectrum of health needs, more attention is being focused on how to improve both individual and community health. For many reasons, the American Hospital Association, the Institute of Medicine, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others strongly support use of collaborative models involving multiple partners for improving community health: