Answering the Call for Exceptional Governance
By John R. Combes, M.D.

To meet the demands that Congress, employers and consumers are making on hospitals, boards will need to increase their oversight of physician alliances and arrangements, long-term strategic planning, quality of care and patient safety, and employee recruitment and retention. At the same time, boards need to help their organizations become more transparent about costs and quality of care.

Hospital and health system boards now recognize that their fiduciary responsibility extends beyond finance to include quality of care, patient safety and clinical outcomes.

They also understand that their responsibility has broadened beyond performance oversight and monitoring to include sharing performance information both internally and externally with key stakeholders. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, The Joint Commission and insurers have affirmed this responsibility by requiring more information on patient outcomes, and asking that this information be shared with the public. Additionally, with the advent of pay-for-performance, the ability to gather and report data on quality, safety and performance outcomes has become an operational and strategic imperative for health care organizations.

Over the past year, the Center for Healthcare Governance has developed new tools and educational resources to help trustees meet these challenges.

The Center has distributed quarterly workbooks in Trustee magazine focusing on trustee certification, the challenges of system governance, maximizing the board’s role in strategic planning and the re-emerging role of boards in building philanthropic support for their hospitals and health systems.

The Center’s monthly column in Trustee, “Center Voices,” has featured the perspectives of leading health care organizations and individuals on: governance challenges; stewardship of information technology; assessing a hospital’s information technology capabilities; consumerism and its effects on health care delivery; successful board involvement in strategic plan development and implementation; and facility planning trends.

The Center’s ongoing monograph series has included publications on creating a culture of collaborative leader-ship between boards and CEOs, becoming an employer of choice, the board’s fiduciary role and legal responsibilities, and CEO succession planning.

These resources have been further complemented by the continuing development of online tools for boards. Last October, the Center launched a new series of collaborative leadership tools for CEOs and boards. The first, a self-assessment inventory to help build and strengthen the effectiveness of the CEO/board relationship, was distributed later that month to both Center members and AHA member hospitals.

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Archived Center Voices

• Governance Assessment
• Resource Repository
• Governance Tools
• Governance Research
• Speakers Express
• Qualified Consultants
• Center Voices Columns
• Trustee Workbooks
• Center Monographs

Center Web site

Blue Ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance

Building an
Exceptional Board:
Effective Practices for Health Care Governance
Report of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance

More Information

Collaborative
Leadership Tools
for CEOs

Collaborative Leadership:
A New Model For Developing Truly Effective Relationships Between CEOs and Trustees

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Critical Issues in Health Care System Governance
June 19-20, 2007
Loews Philadelphia Hotel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Conference Web site
• Registration Information
• Brochure (PDF)

The Center for Healthcare Governance is pleased to present “Critical Issues in HealthCare System Governance,” a national conference structured to address the specific governance needs of health care systems. A key element of the Center’s curriculum-based approach to education, this 1-1/2 day program offers a wealth of information, strategies and best practices for system CEOs, trustees and executive/clinical leadership. Participants will come away with a broader understanding of the complex issues inherent in system governance, as well as a deeper appreciation for the environmental factors challenging systems today.

Special attention will be given to the board’s authority, role and responsibilities in a multi-organizational structure, with a focus on streamlining the structure and maximizing the functioning of system boards, setting strategy, and ensuring quality and patient safety. Presenters will also address issues related to the “glue” of governance — communication, agenda planning, productive leadership retreats, and board engagement, and share strategies for effectively leveraging physician participation in system governance.

Join us to explore how system boards can best balance roles, responsibilities and division of authority with their member hospital boards. You will uncover the essentials of high-performing governance at the system level, while increasing your knowledge of the core business issues facing all health care organizations.

Who Should Attend:

• Health care delivery system and member hospital CEOs and senior executives
• Trustees who serve on system boards or on the boards of the system's member hospitals

Learning Objectives

• Understand how health care system governance differs from governance in independent hospitals
• Address the specific roles and responsibilities of system boards to chart strategy, promote clinical improvements, and engage physicians across the organization
• Gain insights into the practices and processes that can improve the performance of system boards
• Explore how diverse organizational cultures, planning processes, and decision-making approaches can thrive in a multi-hospital system

Conference Web site | Registration Information | Brochure (PDF)

The Center for Healthcare Governance developed Speakers Express to help make the high-caliber speakers and presenters found at its national symposia and regional workshops available to organizations throughout the country. Our speakers are proven professionals who are viewed as the "go-to" leaders in their respective fields of expertise, customizing their presentations to fit the unique needs of each organization.

The Center for Healthcare Governance introduces James E. Orlikoff.

James E. Orlikoff Speaker Bio Presentation Topics

More Information on the Center's Speakers Express