MHA's Executive Briefing

2006 MHA Distinguished Hospital Trustee Award

The Mississippi Hospital Association Distinguished Hospital Trustee Award recognizes an individual each year who has demonstrated significant contributions in the field of hospital governance over a sustained period of time. The Trustee of the Year will be featured in a video presentation at the 2006 Leadership Conference shown during the awards presentation at the conference. Last year’s winner was Michael Heidelberg from Singing River Hospital System.

Deadline for nomination for the Distinguished MHA Hospital Trustee Award is March 31, 2006. Attached below is a description of the award and the nomination criteria. Please answer the questions provided when submitting your nomination and return by mail, fax, or email to: Judith Forshee, vice president for education, Mississippi Hospital Association, P.O. Box 1909, Madison, MS 39130 or e-mail to sbishop@mhanet.org.

Download 2006_distinguished_service_award.doc

How The Best Boards Stay Clued In

Forget the idea that directors should hear mostly from the CEO. Yet boards must also walk a fine line between good governance and usurping the CEO. Defining where oversight ends and management begins isn't easy, directors say.

Moody's wants to size up boards in ratings

According to a new report from Moody's Investor Service, not-for-profit hospital and health system boards may be asked to play a bigger role in the bond-rating process. With health care growing increasingly complex and governance continuing to be a critical issue, Moody's may turn to board members for additional assistance in evaluating credit-worthiness, according to a report, called Governance of Not-for-Profit Healthcare Organizations, by Diane Viacava, a vice president and senior credit officer at the company.

Moody's analysts already make it a goal to visit with hospital board members but may expand that to some sort of requirement eventually. The report's goal was to shed more light on how Moody's incorporates governance into its ratings. Moody's breaks governance down into seven core dimensions for ratings: avoidance of conflicts of interest, development of an organization's mission, selection and evaluation of senior management, composition of the board and its performance, interpretation and understanding of financial reporting, use of performance metrics based on external benchmarks to review performance and building and maintenance of financial resources. (condensed from an articly by Paul Barr in Modern Healthcare, June 13, 2005)

Experts discuss attributes of effective hospital boards

Hospital boards are entering the age of "leadership accountability and transparency" and need to "aggressively upgrade" the effectiveness of governance operations, expert Jamie Orlikoff told trustees at the AHA's annual meeting.

"Governance is now a front page issue, and the quality of governance that got you this far, will be insufficient to get you where you need to be 10 years from now," said Orlikoff, a senior consultant to the AHA's Center for Healthcare Governance. He noted that state legislators, attorney generals and bond insurers all are assessing the quality of hospital governance, and said effective boards operate with a high degree of trust and open communication, encourage healthy debate and build a culture of respectful dissent. Donald Wegmiller, chairman of Clark Consulting and head of the CHG advisory board, said improvements in quality and efficiency can help "change public attitudes in terms of what we are doing." (via AHA News)

Hospital boards play key role in advancing quality and safety, speaker says

Hospital boards have a critical role to play in pushing their organizations to make "quantum leaps" in improving health care quality and patient safety, said Gary Yates, chief medical officer for 2004 Quest for Quality Prize winner Sentara Healthcare. Addressing trustees at an AHA annual meeting session, Yates recommended boards place quality and safety high on their agenda, incorporate it into their capital allocation decisions, encourage participation in national quality and safety activities, embrace public reporting of health care data, consider creating a quality subcommittee and learn from other industries. He called for "measured impatience," meaning that trustees should set "clear strategic priorities and hold management accountable for achieving results." (via AHA News Now)