Strategic Resource Allocation: The Board’s Critical Role

About the Author:
Susanna E. Krentz is President of Krentz Consulting; Cathy Sullivan Clark and Scott B. Clay are Senior Principals and Dennis V. Kennedy is a Principal at Noblis Health Innovation, which offers advisory services, applied research and innovative solutions for health care providers and the broader health care community.

Overview:
In the current economic climate, the disparity between capital availability and need has never been greater. This means that allocating the hospital’s scarce resources requires particular attention from boards and leaders and specific decision making tools, resources and guidance that can help optimize outcomes.

Strategic Resource Allocation: The Board’s Critical Role is a guide for effective board participation in resource allocation decisions. It discusses sources of strategic funds, reviews survey data that indicate how boards are participating in resource allocation today and suggests how boards and leaders can work together to improve resource allocation decisions.This publication contains a variety of tools that can help boards make better decisions about their organizations’ resource use.Tips are provided to help boards avoid common missteps in assigning resources to various initiatives. Sample checklists, evaluation criteria and risk assessment resources are also included to help boards most productively participate in the process.

This publication also includes three case examples of how hospitals, systems and their boards effectively analyzed and addressed various resource allocation challenges.The cases include ranking and evaluation exercises that illustrate how boards and leadership distinguished between competing priorities and how they developed broad support for resource allocation choices in complex political environments.

Effective resource allocation can make the difference between strategic success and failure for health care organizations. Understanding the process and how boards and leaders can best work together to successfully accomplish it is helpful in the best of times. However, effective resource allocation is essential as hospitals and systems work to best position themselves to address the economic challenges facing the industry today and for the foreseeable future.

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This publication has been archived, but may contain information that is still useful for specific purposes. For more information, contact the Center at 888-540-6111 or email at info@americangovernance.com