Governance Research

Survey Series Report: Executive Sessions

Executive sessions can be a very sensitive topic for trustees and CEOs. Considering that topics such as executive compensation and performance evaluation are thought to be commonly discussed and that CEOs are, in many cases, excluded from at least a part of the discussion, it is understandable that executive sessions have the potential to create tension between trustees and the CEO. In such a delicate situation, it is important to have objective benchmarks with which to compare individual organizational board practices with the practices of boards from other health care institutions and with prescriptions from the field. In this context, the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust and the Center for Healthcare Governance chose executive sessions as the first topic in their series of short online surveys that will help provide quick benchmarks of current practices and emerging trends in the field of health care governance. In total, 350 CEOs responded to this survey.

Overall, nearly 90 percent of boards have held at least one executive session in the last two years. Among those boards, most averaged between one and eight such sessions per year, with only 43 percent of CEOs indicating that such a session was routinely included in the agenda of every board meeting. Regarding the sensitivity of executive sessions, it is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of CEOs indicated that performance evaluation and executive compensation were two of the subjects usually addressed in executive sessions.

 

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This data was originally publised in the January 2008 issue of Trustee Magazine, Hot Topics