The Center for Healthcare Governance is proud to annouce the publication of our newest monograph, Pay for Performance: A Guide for Hospital Trustees. The monograph is meant to serve as a primer on pay-for-performance (P4P) programs for hospital boards and is now available for purchase through the Center's Web site.

Understanding the P4P programs emerging within the health care industry can be a challenging endeavor because many trustees are often unfamiliar with medical nomenclature, clinical quality measurement and patient safety events data. More importantly, board members generally rely on hospital management for guidance on the clinical quality and safety indicators that are part of the P4P programs they should be monitoring.

• the growth of the P4P movement;
  
• typical components of P4P programs;
  
• challenges in participating in them, and
  
• best practices for board members to effectively understand and provide guidance for successful hospital involvement in P4P programs.

Questions that trustees can ask to assess whether their hospital or health system is on the right track for effectively participating in P4P programs are included. The guide concludes with 10 tips that can help board members improve their oversight of this increasingly important aspect of hospital quality and safety efforts.

This publication is useful as background information for new trustees and as a resource for board members serving on the board's quality committee or participating in hospital quality improvement efforts. It can also be used as background reading for a board education session or leadership retreat on quality and patient safety issues. While P4P programs are complex and evolving, one thing is clear-they are not going away. What is equally clear is that leadership at the board and most senior levels of hospitals and health systems will be critical not only to succeed in a world of P4P but to build the infrastructure for excelling with broader performance measurement systems, as well.

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Two new publications are coming your way from the Center this May. The May issue of Trustee Magazine will include a Center Voices column on modernizing board communications, and the Governance Insights column of the May/June issue of Healthcare Executive will feature a Center article on governance and management.

The Essential Roles of Boards in Executive Succession will appear as a Center Voices column in the May issue of Trustee magazine. The article, by Eric Hanson, executive consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI), a global human resource consulting firm and an affiliate member of the Center, discusses the two roles boards play in executive succession: to oversee the selection of a new CEO and ensure that processes are in place to produce a pipeline of future senior leaders. He also describes six steps in which boards need to engage to carry out their roles effectively: plan ahead, be engaged, define the CEO’s role, design and execute a rigorous evaluation process, ensure a transition plan and communicate about the process.

Lines Between Governance and Management will appear as a Governance Insights column in the May/June issue of Healthcare Executive. This article, by Mary K. Totten and James E. Orlikoff, governance consultants to the Center, discusses how traditional lines between the work of the board and the work of management are being redrawn as issues such as pay-for-performance, new IRS Form 990 reporting requirements and more complex and challenging approaches to operational performance improvement are requiring levels of board understanding and involvement that might once have been considered “micromanagement.” The authors urge hospital boards and executives to be conscious of these pressures on boards to become more detail oriented, to make explicit choices about balancing relative roles and responsibilities and to ensure that the board retains its critical strategic focus.

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

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 Connie R. Curran, RN, Ed,D, FAAN, a faculty member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and one of the most prolific scholars in the field, with more than 200 publications and several research programs to her credit. Learn more about Connie Curran below:

Connie Curran, RN, Ed.D, FAAN 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.