Resource Library

The legal authority to approve, limit or deny provider credentials and privileges is a fundamental board responsibility. Organizations that centralize and standardize this process are better prepared to meet the field’s many changes and challenges.

What is the board’s role in shaping culture? Several health care leaders offer advice that reflects the diversity of their experiences.

Oversight of an employed physician network is a new and evolving role for your board. Focus on five key issues, and adopt three best practices, to help the network succeed.

An external review of workplace operations produces a Leadership Letter with observations and recommendations for continuous improvement, followed by open discussion among the board, CEO and top management.

To understand how the organization really functions on a day-to-day basis, boards need to gauge the hospital’s work life and its efficacy. Board responsibilities include: (a) understanding the hospital’s operating model and whether it actually performs in that mode, how critical decisions are made, and the hospital’s ability to recognize its own problems and “self-correct”; and (b) ensuring that it happens.

By tracking outcomes, the committee can ensure that the program operates consistently with the established philosophy and that areas requiring attention are readily identified. When combined with comprehensive tally sheets and affirmation that all executive compensation arrangements are fully disclosed to the committee, there is a comprehensive baseline underlying the committee’s deliberations.

As health care organizations face a number of emerging challenges, the compensation committee of the not-for- profit hospital and health system board is well served to review and update the executive compensation program periodically.

As hospitals and health systems realign their strategic objectives, executive compensation programs must evolve to support the organization's mission. Your board's compensation committee should determine if corresponding actions or updates are necessary.

Philanthropy can drive innovative initiatives to address social, economic, educational and quality of life issues in the community.

The seismic forces currently roiling health care present boards with a new set of profoundly consequential strategic options. These often involve significant risk, major mission shifts, and challengingly short windows of opportunity.

A good coach focuses on what the board chair wants to accomplish and designs a coaching process based on how the board chair experiences the role; on assessment of individual strengths and weaknesses; and on identifying and addressing blind spots. Each coaching process should be customized to meet the board chair’s individual needs and goals.

Making coaching available to an incoming board chair can build the chair's capacity to lead the board effectively.

Consumerism, personalized medicine, digital technology and artificial intelligence are fundamentally changing the way health care is purchased, delivered and organized.

With proper planning and investment, hospitals and health systems can reduce cyber risks and vulnerabilities.

Corporate boards, across industry sectors, are increasingly being called upon to support management as the company responds to how innovative competitors “disrupt” their existing business model. Blockbuster, Borders and ESPN are prime examples of established companies that have been pulled into the financial undertow created by nimble disruptors.

A diagnostic tool and organization assessment can help boards address barriers to effective quality oversight.

Health care providers must draw lessons from the core capabilities of successful companies in the internet economy.

Health care is ripe for change. The evidence is all around us. A majority of health care leaders recently surveyed said hospitals and health systems are most in need of disruptive innovation (New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst, February 16, 2017). Consumers are taking charge of their own health and seeking providers that deliver high-quality, affordable and accessible care in ways they have come to expect from their favorite retailers. And disrupters from within and outside of health care are joining forces and competing with traditional health care organizations to give consumers what they are looking for.

Affordability is one of the most important challenges influencing Americans’ ability to access health care. However, no single, agreed-upon definition of health care affordability exists because it is influenced by many complex factors.

Standard Work for Governance Example Source: St. Charles Health System. Used with Permission. Lean principles and practices drive performance improvement by clarifying the steps involved in work processes to avoid wasting time reinventing how work should be done. The board of St. Charles Health System in Bend, Ore., developed “standard work” for several board processes to improve governance performance. An example of standard work for biannual distribution of director stipends appears here.