The Excellent Board II - New, Practical Solutions for Health Care Trustees and CEOs

Karen Gardner, Editor

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436 pages, softcover, 6" x 9"
AHA Order Number: 196126
ISBN: 978-1-55648-350-9
AHA Member Price: $76.00
Nonmember Price: $95.00

Health care governance has changed significantly since 2003 when the first edition of The Excellent Board was published. New laws and regulations, new responsibilities and added oversight have made CEOs and board members more visible in the public eye and put them more at risk. The Excellent Board II addresses these new accountabilities with fresh, new articles and new sections on hospital-physician relationships and information technology — areas that have a major impact on the success of a health care organization.

The Excellent Board II is a collection of articles selected from recent issues of Trustee magazine that cover topics vitally important to a board's effectiveness. Articles have been selected because they provide a thorough understanding of current core issues. The mix of articles gives new and experienced trustees, as well as board and committee chairs, a solid grounding in what it takes to be a superior board member and provides direction on how a health care organization can reach the next level of excellence.

The Excellent Board II is an essential reference that will help health care governing boards achieve their goals as they face an environment where reduced reimbursement, complex technology, staffing conflicts and shortages and an increasing number of uninsured patients have put hospitals' bottom lines in jeopardy.

45 articles packed with advice and counsel for better outcomes in

Reviewer Comments:

Trustee's best articles in a comprehensive, easy-to-read resource...it pulls it all together for busy and dedicated trustees.
Richard J. Umbdenstock, President, AHA, Washington, DC

With the ever-increasing responsibilities being placed on trustees of nonprofit health care organizations, there has never been a greater need for practical and useful information on how to best perform their oversight work. Karen Gardner has carefully collected works from the 'best and brightest' minds...an absolute must as a resource for every hospital trustee and CEO!
John G. O'Brien, President and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care, Worcester, MA

...help has arrived for new and experienced trustees and board and committee chairs...
45 of the very best articles from Trustee that cover the most compelling subjects...
John G. King, President, John G. King Associates, Scottsdale, AZ

Karen Gardner has done an outstanding job of selecting and organizing recent articles covering current thinking on hospital board responsibilities and best practices....an invaluable resource for trustees, especially board and organizational leadership.
Richard P. de Filippi, Trustee, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA

Like the best three-day seminar for trustees, delivered in a single text full of take-homes.
Douglas D. Hawthorne, CEO, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, TX

Table of Contents

About the Editor
Preface
Foreword
Part One. Board Composition

• Nurturing a Precious Commodity: Trustee Recruits —Laurie Larson
• Finding the Perfect Fit—Karen Sandrick
• Characteristics of Effective Boards—Lawrence D. Prybil
• Criteria for Selecting Physician Trustees—Errol L. Biggs

Part Two. The Governance Process and Trustee Education

• Best Practices in Action: Orientation—Mary K. Totten and James E. Orlikoff
• The Governance Audit: Assessing and Improving the Board—James E. Orlikoff and Mary K. Totten
• How to Run Effective Board Meetings—James E. Orlikoff and Mary K. Totten
• Governance 101—Shari Mycek
• What Do Boards Need to Know?—Laurie Larson
• Knowledge Building: How to Raise Your Board's IQ—Shari Mycek

Part Three. In the Boardroom

• Judging Fiduciary Duty—Karen Sandrick
• Accountability Stops Here: Educating the Board to Meet Its Responsibilities—Shari Mycek
• Avoiding Conflict of Interest: How Boards Can Withstand Close Scrutiny—Karen Sandrick
• Director Fitness—Michael W. Peregrine
• Governance in the Spotlight: What the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Means for You—James E. Orlikoff and Mary K. Totten
• Show Them the Data—Michelle Bitoun
• Diagnosing the Health of Your Organization: Early Warning Signs—Mary K. Totten and James E. Orlikoff

Part Four. Finance

• Hospital Finance: What Every Board Needs to Know—Jan Greene
• Board Oversight of the Revenue Cycle: Tools for New Levels of Performance—Jeffrey D. Jones
• Strategic Financial Planning: What Every Trustee Needs to Know about Facility Replacement—Mark E. Grube
• Looking Harder: The Audit Committee under Sarbanes-Oxley—Jan Greene
• Establishing Principles for Hospital-Physician Joint Ventures—James Lifton and L. Edward Bryant Jr.
• Where's the Money?—Karen Sandrick
• Mission Possible: A Financial Assistance Policy—Dina Maas

Part Five. Quality

• Hospital Governing Boards and Quality of Care: A Call to Responsibility—National Quality Forum
• Understanding and Improving Clinical Quality: The Role of Trustees—James L. Reinertsen, M.D.
• One Giant Leap for Quality—Karen Sandrick
• The Rural Case for Quality (and Why It Matters)—Laurie Larson
• Pay for Performance—Jan Greene

Part Six. Patient Safety

• Creating the Patient Safety Mindset—Laurie Larson
• Patient Safety: It Starts with the Board—Shari Mycek
• Have You M.E.T. the Future of Better Patient Safety?—Laurie Larson
• 25 Simple Steps to Save Patients' Lives—Lee Ann Runy
• The Top Ten Hospital Malpractice Claims—and How to Minimize Them—Maureen Glabman

Part Seven. Physicians

• The Hospital-Physician Relationship: Redefining the Rules of Engagement—James E. Orlikoff and Mary K. Totten
• Getting to Know You—Shari Mycek
• Physicians in Governance: The Board's New Challenge—James E. Orlikoff and Mary K. Totten
• Ten Questions for Building a Physician Relations Strategy—David Miller and John Hill
• Physicians on the Board: Inside or Outside?—Karen Sandrick
• Why Should You Develop a Medical Staff Plan?—Nathan Kaufman
• Hospital-Physician Gainsharing—Rosemary Grandusky and Kathy Kronenberg

Part Eight. Information Technology

• The Role of the Board in the IT Discussion—John P. Glaser
• Making a Commitment to IT—Jan Greene
• Physicians: The Key to IT Success—Sheree Geyer
• Information Technology May Not Be "It" for Patient Safety—Jan Greene

Index