Resource Library

Maintaining the public trust a hospital and its board can only be effective if they maintain the trust of those the organization serves. According to the Center for Healthcare Governance and the Health Research & Educational Trust’s Blue Ribbon Panel on health care governance, maintaining the public trust is the board’s most important responsibility."

The recent economic crisis, coupled with weekly headlines about one company after another demonstrating poor corporate governance choices, led investors and corporate watchdogs to blame boards of directors for less than-expected company performance. These stakeholders argue that directors were asleep at the wheel and not paying close enough attention to their oversight responsibilities.

The role of a health care organization trustee gets more complicated and more sophisticated every day. Pressures are increasing simultaneously for higher quality, lower cost, more transparency and accountability, and use of evolving and evermore expensive technology.

From accountable care organizations to clinical integration, forging a close bond between physicians and hospitals for improved quality results is now an imperative.

There’s hardly a health care board member, past or present, who hasn’t heard of the age-old governance mantra “no margin, no mission.” For years this simple phrase captured what most trustees came to believe was their primary obligation: to ensure the financial viability of their hospital or health system. Days cash on hand, debt coverage ratio and net operating margin were key measures that defined high or low performance.

The hospital's board chair picks up the phone in his office at TriState Bank headquarters. The CEO’s voice on the other end of the line is stark and serious. “The medical executive committee just gave me a unanimous no confidence vote,” he says. “They’re complaining about closed communications and aloofness. And the Gazette called and wants to talk about my compensation."

Over the past decade, we have learned much about board effectiveness. A growing body of research has systematically confirmed the intuitive link between board and organizational performance: higher-performing boards are associated with higher-performing organizations.

Hospital and health system boards are being overwhelmed by hundreds of quality indicators from numerous sources. Many are required or linked to payment incentives, but some are part of voluntary improvement programs. Amidst the deluge of numbers, leaders could miss valuable, potentially actionable information.

The role of a health care organization trustee is getting more complicated and more sophisticated every day. Pressures are increasing simultaneously for higher quality, lower cost, more transparency and accountability, and use of evolving and ever-more-expensive technology.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

This monograph discusses today’s market environment, current capital market perspective and related risks, and then outlines a project management approach and questions that must be addressed to help board members and executives more effectively manage capital project risks while achieving organizational strategies and goals.

In 2003, Princeton HealthCare System initiated a highly participative and comprehensive long-range strategic planning process. Among the participants were trustees, donors, physicians, elected officials, influential community members, and patients and their families, as well as administrators and clinical and service staff members. 

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.