In December 2007, the Center for Healthcare Governance partnered with the Health Research and Educational Trust on a survey of 249 hospital and health system CEOs about the demographic characteristics of their boards, looking at age, level of tenure, and work status of their board members.

Overall, the age distribution of the board members in the health care institutions surveyed is somewhat skewed in the direction of the older age brackets with 70% of board members being in their 50s or 60s. There were very few differences among different types of health care organizations in the average age of their board members except for the following two areas:

• Freestanding health care institutions were more likely to have a greater percentage of board members at least 60 years of age (48% of board members) than were health systems (37%) or health care institutions that are subsidiaries of health systems (36%).
  
• Health care institutions with a religious affiliation were less likely to have board members under the age of 40 (1% of board members) than were health care institutions with no religious affiliation (8%).

Thirty percent (30%) of board members had more than 9 years of tenure, indicating that many boards are not following the recommended practice of limiting tenure to three, 3-year terms. Within the 9-year term limit framework, it also is interesting that there is a proportionately higher percentage of first term board members (28%) compared to second and third-term board members (42% combined). This finding suggests that a significant number of board members are leaving their boards after their first term.

Continue Reading Trustee Demographics Summary


Editor's Note: A related report, entitled "Governance in Nonprofit Health Systems: An Initial Report on CEO Perspectives," is now available for download via the Center's Web site. The report focuses on three important areas of health care governance: board structure and composition; board practices and processes; and board culture.

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Additional Center Monographs Available

Hospital-Physician Clinical Integration

and

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

More Information

Join your colleagues April 6-9 in Washington, D.C., at the 2008 AHA Annual Membership Meeting. This year's agenda includes several sessions designed specifically for hospital trustees. Tickets for each event are $35 per person, with the package of three sessions plus the trustee breakfast available for $125.

Session Topics

• Success in Succession Management: Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders
  V. James Fiorenzo, RPh, MBA, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Hamot Medical Center, Erie, PA and Debra D. Walker, Vice President, Health Care Practice, Development Dimensions International, Pittsburgh, PA
  
  
• The Board's Role in Quality and Patient Safety: Practical Tools , Tactics, and Techniques The Role of the Health Care Trustee
  James E. Orlikoff, President, Orlikoff & Associates, Inc., and Senior Consultant, Center for Healthcare Governance, Chicago, IL
  
  
• Trustee Leadership Breakfast National Political Update
  Amy Walter, Editor in Chief, The Hotline, Washington, DC
  
  
• The Gremlins of Governance: What Keeps Me Awake at Night?
  Richard Chait, Research Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA

More Information and Session Descriptions

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 James E. Orlikoff, the senior consultant to the Center for health care governance and the national advisor on governance and leadership to the American Hospital Association and Health Forum, has been involved in leadership, quality, and strategy issues for over twenty-five years. Learn more about James E. Orlikoff below:

James E. Orlikoff Speaker Bio Presentation Topics

More Information on the Center's Speakers Express

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