Asset Stewardship and the Board
By Ann Kirby, Mary K. Totten and James E. Orlikoff

As fiduciaries of a health care organization's assets, boards are required to act in the best interests of the organization, ensuring that resources are used in a reasonable, appropriate and legally accountable way to meet community health care needs. A sample of the factors complicating the board's charge include: bed capacity that falls short of demand; declining reimbursement from payers; an expanding uninsured population; and increasing consumer choice. In other words, the challenge of ensuring the best use of the organization's human, financial, physical and other resources is a daunting, yet critical, board responsibility.

Boards must act as prudent fiduciaries authorizing strategic investments while ensuring that existing resources and investments are maximized. To do this responsibly, they need information and tools to understand current asset performance.

The hospital's core mission is delivering the best possible patient care. Efficient, effective patient flow—i.e., delivering the appropriate care to a patient at the right time and place—is the engine that drives optimal care delivery and supports strategic goals. These goals typically include strong financial performance, high-quality care, patient satisfaction and operational excellence.

The Health Care Operating Cycle can help boards understand where existing assets are primarily deployed in hospitals. The cycle identifies the processes health care organizations conduct to help patients gain access to care, provide needed care and services and realize associated revenue. The Cycle begins with "Patient Access," which includes processes involved in managing patient demand for care and service, service scheduling, securing up-front financial sponsorship for care and service, and coordination of activities on the day of service.

Next, "Service Delivery" involves case management, utilization management, care coordination, ensuring all charges associated with a patient's care are captured for billing purposes, transitioning patients throughout their stay and discharge and preparing patient rooms to receive the next patient.

Continue Trustee Workbook

Archived Trustee Workbooks

• Blue Ribbon Panel on Health Care Governance
• Collaborative
  Leadership Tools
• Governance Assessment
• Resource Repository
• Governance Tools
• Governance Research
• Speakers Express
• Qualified Consultants
• Center Voices Columns
• Trustee Workbooks
• Center Monographs

Center Web site

New Center Monographs Available

Hospital-Physician Clinical Integration

and

A Seat at the Power Table: The Physician’s Role on the Hospital Board

More Information

The Center for Healthcare Governance wants members to be as connected as possible to our governance consultants. Being able to ask questions online and receive responses back quickly will ensure you'll find the answers and resources to help you achieve excellence in health care governance.

Please fill out the Center's Ask the Governance Expert online form with your specific question or request, and you will be contacted within 24 hours with a reply. In addition, please feel free to use this form to submit feedback about the Center's services so that we can better serve you.

Please note that this is a member-only resource. Only submissions by Center members will be answered.

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 Gretchen Dahlen.

Gretchen Dahlen Speaker Bio Presentation Topics

More Information on the Center's Speakers Express

To view archived editions of the Center's bi-weekly email Center News & Updates, click here.