Governance Effectiveness
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.
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…
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.…
In today's environment of change and transformation, some nonprofit hospitals and health systems are considering the possibility of selling to for-profit providers. A central concern for boards engaged in strategic deliberations about a potential sale is preserving the charitable mission,…
The community health needs assessment has the potential to be a transformative driver for understanding and addressing the health needs of a hospital’s patient population — and meeting population health goals.
Hospitals and health systems throughout the country face many of the same challenges. One of the most dangerous — and almost always overlooked (if an organization is even aware of it) — is the persistent use of inconsistent terminology.
When there are a lack of rules guiding…
Hospitals and health systems are under attack from new forms of viruses every day.
But some of these viruses don’t attack the human body. As recent news reports have highlighted, hospitals and health systems are now prime targets for malicious malware viruses that seek to infiltrate…