Resource Library

Given the sweeping changes in health care, forward-thinking hospitals, systems and medical centers are carefully evaluating board member succession and recruitment. The challenging environment in which these organizations operate requires strong, knowledgeable boards whose members have deep insights into the field and a fundamental understanding of business, management practices and how to compete in a highly competitive market.

Bringing new members onto the board has its challenges. In small or rural communities, the pool of potential trustees is often limited, with desirable candidates already serving on multiple boards. Even in bigger urban areas, it sometimes seems the same people rotate on and off the boards of larger community organizations — the Rotary Club, the chamber of commerce, the hospital.

Health care organization trusteeship is getting more complicated and challenging as pressures to improve quality and safety, reduce costs, increase transparency and accountability, and use changing and evermore-expensive technology converge. At the same time, hospitals face increasing competition from unexpected sources for patients and for professionals in critical disciplines.

The 2007 report of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance focused on building a foundation for exceptional governance and included several tools and practices to help boards move from good to great performance.

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

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.

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

From a Community Multi-Site Hospital with a Diverse Community Note: the following is intended to be an example that boards should adapt to meet their individual needs.  To read more...

The current challenges of healthcare governance have given rise to a growing debate about the issue of term limits for hospital and health organization board members. Are term limits a restrictive practice that leads to the loss of badly needed board talent, or are they an essential way of keeping boards from becoming stale and ineffective?