Resource Library

Board Composition and selectionGetting Nurses on Board(s)Why health care organizations should consider adding nurses to their boardsBy Kimberly Cleveland, Pam Rudisill, Anthony Vander Horst and Laurie BensonIn 2021, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine released

Board Composition and Selection How to Navigate Complex, Multitiered Governance Success comes from defining expectations for various stakeholders By Linda Summers, Erica M. Osborne and Karma H.

BOARD COMPOSITION AND SELECTION Sample Governance Authority Matrix Overview The first order of business a subsidiary board should undertake is understanding how its authority has (or will) change within a multitiered governance structure. What are the delegated authorities from the system, and what authorities does the system retain? How have fiduciary duties changed?

Board Composition & Selection Data Reveal Characteristics Shared by Successful CEOs Choosing your next CEO using Objective Data By Kenneth R. Cohen Sixteen percent of hospital CEOs left their roles in 2021 according to a report from the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Adapted from “Recruiting for a Diverse Health Care Board,” by Karma H. Bass (Trustee Insights, Dec. 2020).

Adding diverse members to a hospital’s or health system’s board can change the board’s culture for the better.

An emerging group of future health care leaders are ready to take on the challenge of health care board service.

There are better ways to honor and, as appropriate, continue to involve former trustees, while also adhering to the higher standards demanded of boards today.

Is granting an outgoing trustee ‘emeritus status’ a thing of the past?

Millennials use the health care system in a unique way. Trustees must be attentive to their views and recruit them to the board for its long-term sustainability.

Topics: Using Competencies in Trustee Selection, Competency-Based Trustee Selection in Action, Using Competencies to Transform Governance

The following is intended to be an example that boards should adapt to meet their individual needs. Effective governance depends on the right mixture of skills, experience, personal qualities and diversity among the members of the hospital board.

This chair position charter is grounded on a model of healthcare organization governance forwarded in Board Work by Dennis Pointer and James E. Orlikoff (Jossey-Bass,1999).

Even before the Enron scandal, which featured directors who didn’t understand the company’s complex financial transactions, and before the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act required publicly owned corporations to disclose whether their boards include directors with financial expertise, it should have been self‐evident that relevant knowledge and experience are prerequisites for effective governance.  

In 2009 the AHA’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Trustee Core Competencies identified two sets of competencies that focused on the knowledge, skills and personal capabilities needed by trustees of hospitals and health systems to govern effectively.

Board and Committee Composition and Succession Planning...

Because of this generation’s size and increasing influence, Millennials are being surveyed and studied to better understand what makes them tick and how they may play a role in fundamentally reshaping how we live, work—and govern—our organizations.

A board member/trustee with a nursing background brings a unique voice to governance conversations focused on the Triple Aim. Nurses bring expertise in and valuable perspectives about community health, quality, safety, patient experience, workforce development, staff engagement and financial stewardship.

More and more boards are adopting the practice of using competency-based criteria to select governing board members. They identify the subject areas and behavioral qualities needed from trustees and apply them to recruitment, orientation, leadership development, succession planning and periodic evaluation.

Several events can lead to a decision to down-size a board. In some cases, the trigger is a merger or an acquisition in which seating all legacy directors would result in a large, unwieldy board or produce an imbalance favoring one of the combining parties. In other cases, a large board simply decides its present size is an impediment to efficient and effective governance.