Governance Effectiveness

The political conventions are over, and election season is in full swing. Candidates for office at nearly every level of government will spend the next two months talking to voters and trying to persuade them that they are the best choice. As you encounter candidates for Congress —…
Trustee talking points Collaboratives or alliances of neighboring health systems are an alternative to formal consolidation. They provide a way for systems to gain efficiencies of scale without losing independence through a merger.
The American Hospital Association board of trustees has elected eight members to serve three-year terms on the board beginning Jan. 1. In addition, the board recently appointed two new trustees to serve partial terms. The elected trustees are: Vanessa Ervin, past chair and current board member…
It is hard to imagine an industry more turbulent than health care or a position more demanding than hospital board chair. Beyond the challenges of providing oversight for a highly complex delivery system, the chair must stay abreast of changing regulations and increased competition, not to…
Trustee talking points An ever-increasing amount of data is available for health care leaders to use in making decisions about drugs, devices and procedures. The flood of data can lead to poor results if it's not interpreted correctly. Board members need to be alert to randomness…
Hospitals and health systems have the ability to shape more effective health care through choices they make about managing their own employee health plans.
John Combes, M.D., president of the American Hospital Association’s Center for Healthcare Governance and the AHA’s chief medical officer and senior vice president, will retire in October after almost 12 years leading the association’s governance and physician leadership efforts.
The women and men who work in America’s hospitals witness the toll of the opioid epidemic on patients and the health of their communities every day. While prescription opioids can be a safe and necessary part of pain management, these drugs also carry serious risks of harm because of the…
Health care delivery and payment are undergoing profound change. But embedded in this transformation is a broader focus on improving overall health and quality of life in the communities health care organizations serve.  This expanded purpose is being expressed in a number of ways,…
Early in your education, you learned the difference between cause and effect. Cause is why something happens. Effect is what happens or, better stated, the consequences. Unfortunately, cause and effect are often confused in business, particularly when it comes to retirement benefits planning.…