Governance Effectiveness
Trustee talking points
Patient safety is essential for hospitals and health systems, and it should be a strategic priority.
Boards need to be informed about and engaged in their organization's safety efforts.
There are any number of ways for trustees to improve their oversight of safety; a…
Karen Gardner was a classy person. I don’t use that term lightly. You can be smart. You can be talented. You can be highly accomplished in your career. But it takes a truly classy person to be all those things and face the world with Karen’s conspicuous sense of humor and compassion. To do so…
The American Hospital Association recently unveiled a newly refocused set of services for trustees and CEOs specifically designed to support good governance in the changing health care environment and reach the widest hospital and health system audience possible.
This new set of services broadly…
Could a board be more effective if it deeply understood the ins and outs of how a health system delivers care? For four years, the Immersion Day program at Mission Health in Asheville, N.C., has brought board members into operating rooms, intensive care units, behavioral health units…
Trustee talking pointsAs hospitals and health systems grow increasingly complex, they are increasingly creating dedicated support staff for their boards.Full-time governance leaders can devote themselves to serving and advancing board work and a governance program.There is no one-…
Uncertainty is the new normal for rural hospitals. Finding ways to see through that uncertainty and move forward successfully brought trustees and executives to the American Hospital Association’s Rural Health Care Leadership Conference last month.Policy and governance were the themes at the Feb. 5…
A friend of mine who’s a colorectal surgeon in a city far from my home in Utah told me a fascinating story recently about how colonoscopies are performed in the hospital where he practices. He said he’s done over 22,000 colonoscopies without a single bowel perforation, and he regularly gets calls…
Trustee talking points
The vast majority of the nation's hospitals and health systems do not have a nurse on their board.
Adding nurses to boards adds diversity and a broader range of perspectives.
Nurses' experience and skills lead to boards making more effective operational, financial…
Board chairs are often chosen based on peer respect, professional knowledge, demonstrated commitment such as chairing a board committee, and willingness to put in the time required. A somewhat surprising finding to emerge from the AHA’s 2011 Governance Survey is that conflict management is an…
Trustee talking points
Hospitals and health care foundations have been operating in a favorable charitable environment.
Prospects could change in the face of greater financial volatility and transformation in health care.
Hospital and foundation boards need to take a balanced…