Trustee Articles
With the recent rounds of health insurance company merger and acquisition activity, many hospital executives and their boards may be wondering if a provider-owned plan might make sense for them.
A board member/trustee with a nursing background brings a unique voice to governance conversations focused on the Triple Aim. Nurses bring expertise in and valuable perspectives about community health, quality, safety, patient experience, workforce development, staff engagement and financial…
In most professions, there are clear and relatively consistent pathways along one’s career continuum, as well as clearly defined experiential and educational requirements. Not so with health care governance staffing, which ranges from board support provided by a CEO’s assistant all the way to a…
Here are some of the questions that we as governance consultants hear most frequently about board committees.
Health systems and hospitals are becoming increasingly complex, expanding beyond the traditional hospital/parent company model to include new structures and strategic partnerships to support a wide range of care for patients in their communities.
Over the last decade, and especially since the Enron failure, boards of all types have been working to enhance their performance. They ensure their composition is competency-based; they align their structures with their strategies; and they have robust, written governance procedures.
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…
Several events can lead to a decision to down-size a board. In some cases, the trigger is a merger or an acquisition in which seating all legacy directors would result in a large, unwieldy board or produce an imbalance favoring one of the combining parties. In other cases, a large board simply…
Whether a board’s starting point is average performance or mediocrity, the journey to the top echelon of governance effectiveness cannot be achieved with a few quick steps. Board development is more like a marathon than a sprint.
While most health care governing boards may still rely on paper packets and board agenda books for board and committee meetings, adoption of board portals— Web-based, online workspaces that support health care governance—appears to be catching up with use in other sectors.