Resource Library

This monograph covers the basics of strategic planning, including definitions of common terms, a description of the planning process and the characteristics of successful plans. It describes the board’s role in planning, including why plans fail, common weaknesses and how boards can support successful plan implementation.

A board committed to continuous improvement realizes that the value of assessing its performance goes beyond meeting Joint Commission or other external requirements. It knows that regular self-evaluation gives it the information needed to understand and build on its strengths and identify and minimize its weaknesses.

Mapping the values and concerns of stakeholders against company strategy is one way to show where stakeholder concerns are aligned with current strategy and to create awareness of where risk or reward exist.

For effective oversight, boards must engage at three levels: see, own and solve.

The attached resource is intended to be an example that boards should adapt to meet their individual needs.

The Audit and Corporate Compliance Committee recommends policies and processes to the board related to...

SAMPLE COMMITTEE CHARTER: EXECUTIVE EVALUATION AND COMPENSATION COMMITTEE Overall Roles and Responsibilities

Almost all hospitals face the issue of not having enough money to accomplish everything they would like to. So how does the board pick among winning ideas when it can’t afford them all? The resources needed to support operations and implement strategic initiatives can far surpass those available.

Elaine Zablocki found that recruiting more minorities and women to the board takes new ways of thinking about, recruiting and orienting directors.

“What is the difference between governance and management?” is by far the question that not-for-profit executives and directors ask most often. Effective boards understand the difference between governing and managing; dysfunctional boards do not.

Hospital boards are beginning to take best practice cues from their corporate counterparts and modernize their communication methods by adopting board portals. A board portal is a secure “host”— i.e., an online storage system for managing trustee communications.

The following is intended to be an example that boards should adapt to meet their individual needs.

Effective board leadership transitions can be facilitated by institutionalizing basic tools and processes. These include setting term limits for those in board leadership positions, periodic evaluations based on clear job descriptions and assessment of potential barriers to successful CEO relationships.

The following document is intended to be an example that boards should adapt to meet their individual needs.

Working committees are the engine that powers effective boards. As their responsibilities increase, boards depend on their committees to engage in careful analysis and oversight of the organizationʼs performance plus a thorough vetting of recommendations before they are submitted to the full board. When committees do their job well and make concise reports to the board, they free up time to use full board meetings for education and open discussion on important strategic and policy issues.

As governing boards seek greater diversity in ethnicity, race, and gender, they face a significant challenge: how to successfully recruit women and minorities with pertinent professional backgrounds and governance skills, while other not-for-profits and corporations seek directors from the very same pool of candidates.

Many governing boards are frustrated because most board meetings and committee meeting agendas are so full of both important and routine business that little time is left over for interactive discussion and questions concerning highly significant or future-oriented strategy and policy issues.

Asset stewardship has long been a key board responsibility. As fiduciaries of a health care organization’s assets, governing boards are required to act in the best interest of the organization, ensuring that resources are used in a reasonable, appropriate and legally accountable way to meet community health care needs.