Resource Library

Healthcare executive support can influence the value these organizations provide.

Most boards I know were built by recruiting business leaders, physicians and clergy, and it’s important to have broad community representation among trustees. Increasingly, however, boards are recruiting new members by using a skills-based approach aligned with the organization’s strategic needs, including the need for information technology expertise. This is where “digital directors” come in.

This monograph offers guidance on proactively considering best practices in executive pay, including the changing role of incentive compensation, good governance practices to mitigate risk and choosing appropriate peer comparison data to support the compensation decision-making process.

Succession planning is a high-stakes governance responsibility. The significant costs of protracted CEO searches and failed replacements are well-documented. Yet, data from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors continue to show that many boards aren’t focusing enough attention on succession planning or on getting it right.

Sound policy management can support the board’s risk and compliance oversight responsibilities

This publication discusses observations and trends about system development and identifies models of governance that are emerging as new organizations form and determine what it really means to become a system. It also reviews issues and obstacles that can arise as models of governance change and suggests steps boards can take to address them on the path toward more effective system governance.

In the new era of health care, hospital boards must consider a different kind of leadership style

This monograph will focus on the Board’s role in plugging into how these processes are carried out within their organizations and on how the Board role is evolving. Among other things, we will address the characteristics of relationships among health care organizations and physicians that, if nurtured and respected, will enable the challenges of tomorrow to be more easily surmounted.

Imagine a health care consumer who dictates his or her own health goals, tracks progress with a wearable medical device or two and who consults provider and social media contacts for advice about interventions, side effects and choices affecting his or her health that could be rewarded financially via insurance policy incentives.

A successful governance education process requires commitment, collaboration and consensus. Below is an outline of how a board of trustees may design a process that will ensure optimum development of leadership knowledge and effectiveness...

This 2014 National Health Care Governance Survey includes many questions from previous surveys that allow insightful comparisons of governance evolution over time. It also probes new areas to enable a better understanding about how hospital and health system boards are preparing for and responding to the transforming health care environment.

Succeeding in the care coordination environment means leaving behind the hospital business model.

Information technology can be the catalyst in transforming the health care delivery system

Great health care boards primarily focus on enabling their organizations to create innovative solutions that address community needs for improved health and well-being. They also address regulatory, competitive, resource and other challenges that sometimes may seem daunting, but these do not divert them from their primary purpose.

Serving on the boards of a hospital system and its health plan offers a unique governance perspective. My journey as a student of governance began 10 years ago when I attended a course on board best practices. As president of the Health Plan Alliance in Irving, Texas, I thought this would be a good way to enhance my communication with my own board, which is made up of C-level health plan executives.

For boards to participate in shaping their new organization, they must be currently performing at an extremely high level. The following is a list of four practices that hospital and health system boards must be engaged in today, in order to be successful in the future.

Much has been written about the resources that hospitals should provide their board members to develop their governance expertise. Generally, a good orientation to the board’s work, educational sessions at board meetings, an annual retreat, periodic attendance at outside educational programs and frequent performance evaluation are some of the basics for any board.

With health reform comes increased demand for transparency about organizational performance and accountability. While most hospital and health system senior leaders realize this, board members, surprisingly, may not. As such, boards must have a clear understanding of their accountability to the organization’s stakeholders in order to govern effectively.

Health care governing board members confront a complex and changing financial landscape in their role as stewards of health care organizations. Hospitals and health systems have faced slim bottom lines for an extended period that have reduced available dollars to invest in organizational advancement and forced many to change strategy, forego acquisition of new technology, delay physical plant improvements, reduce services and streamline staff.