4/02/08

Center Offers New Quality Curriculum for Trustees

Center Resources

Since quality of care is central to the mission of every hospital and health system, there is an increasing demand for the Board's active role in inspiring even greater quality performance. This imperative has taken on a new urgency as quality is increasingly recognized as fundamental to a hospital's mission of providing safe, cost-effective and affordable health care.

The Center for Healthcare Governance is pleased to introduce the Quality Curriculum for Trustees, developed to increase hospital Board member knowledge of the quality imperative. Originally piloted in partnership with the Massachusetts Hospital Association, MHA's Trustees Advisory Council, and a Trustee Steering Committee, the six-hour program includes interactive sessions, including video segments, case history discussions, and small group exercises facilitated by trained presenters who specialize in quality and patient safety issues.

Specifically, the Quality Curriculum for Trustees is designed:

to enhance Board members' abilities to make the clear connections between their work in the boardroom, the performance of their organization, and the well being of patients and the community;
to provide the tools Board members need to effectively drive their hospitals' quality and safety initiatives;
and with the flexibility to be customized based on individual organizational strategy, mission, and vision.

The Curriculum is timely and relevant for any organization interested in improving quality performance, or more effectively driving quality and patient safety initiatives. As a governance resource, the Curriculum will offer value for boards, trustees and executives of hospitals and health care systems, as well as related organizations with responsibilities or oversight related to quality and patient safety. Center members are eligible to apply educational credit toward participating in the Quality Curriculum.

Download Quality Curriculum Information

Download our Quality Self Assessment Tool

Meet the Curriculum Facilitators

Center Web site

Now Available

Quality Curriculum for Hospital and Health Care Trustees

More Information

Coming Soon: New Publications from the Center!

Be on the lookout for two new Center publications in this month's issue of Trustee magazine. The April issue includes a Center Voices column on modernizing board communications, as well as a new Trustee Workbook on governance and hospital performance improvement.

April’s Center Voices column on modernizing board communications is authored by Joe Ruck, CEO of Center member BoardVantage, a provider of secure, hosted board portals. In addition to discussing the increasing use of electronic communication by hospitals and their boards, the column highlights the advantages of adopting a board portal for trustee communications (including easy access to information, secure email capability, reduced risk of litigation and ability to store and retrieve historical documents) and features an account of one hospital’s success in streamlining delivery and access to board meeting agendas and supporting materials.

The Center’s second Trustee Workbook of the year is co-authored by Center faculty and consultants Mary Totten and Jamie Orlikoff, health care executive Kathy McDonagh, and Jean Chenoweth, health care researcher and senior vice president for Thomson Healthcare Performance Improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals Programs. The workbook, which focuses on governance and hospital performance improvement, summarizes qualitative research interviews with hospital CEOs and board chairs in five organizations, including community and rural hospitals, system members and academic medical centers. The workbook discusses how governance responsibilities, such as board self-evaluation and CEO evaluation are conducted, and how performance improvement is monitored and overseen by these organizations and their boards. The workbook also addresses aspects of board culture, such as the political and strategic nature of the board, and their implications for the board’s impact on hospital performance improvement.

Reminder: You can access archived Center Voices and Trustee Workbooks, via the Center’s Web site, under the Publicatons menu!

Trustee Sessions at AHA's 2008 Annual Meeting

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 Eric Hanson, Executive Consultant, 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

Ask the Governance Expert

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.

More information on Ask the Governance Expert and the online submission form.

Register Today for Hospital Trustee Professionalism Conference

Upcoming Events!

Hospital Trustee Professionalism:
Building Capacity for Excellence in Governance
June 26-27, 2008

Hyatt Regency Sacramento at Capital Park - Sacramento, CA

Overview | Agenda | Conference Brochure

Are you new to the hospital board or looking to better define your role as a board member?

At this 1 1/2-day conference, participants will discover the governance practices that help boards to run most effectively, the critical issues facing health care, and the skills and competencies needed to meet the specific roles and duties of the board. First-term and newer trustees will acquire new knowledge to help them fulfill their roles on the board, enabling them to become more informed about their organizations, more aware of their governance responsibilities and better prepared to engage in active and productive oversight while serving as a hospital trustee. Participants will find this conference instrumental in building a solid foundation for effective governance.

Participants will receive:

Rich interaction with experienced faculty with extensive opportunities to gain counsel on one’s own governance issues.
Practical governance tools from the Center’s online Resource Repository, including board charters, board committee charters, and position descriptions.
A comprehensive conference guide, including hard copies of presentations.
A certificate for 10% off the Center’s Governance Assessment Process for each participating hospital.

Educational Partner: The California Hospital Association

More Information

Holding in Trust: Catholic Health Care Governance
May 13-14, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
Conference Information

Hospital Trustee Professionalism: Building Capacity for Excellence in Governance
June 26-27, 2008
Sacramento, California
Conference Information

Fall Symposium on
Governing & Leading
Healthcare Organizations
September 14-17, 2008
Boston, Massachusetts

Hospital Trustee Professionalism: Building Capacity for Excellence in Governance
November 10-11, 2008
Orlando, Florida

More information on events

Speaker Spotlight

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 Thomas A. Atchison, Ed.D., president and founder of Atchison Consulting Group, whose expertise in health care is built on over 30 years experience in a variety of management positions in healthcare institutions and organizations. Learn more about Thomas A. Atchison below: