AHA affiliate releases blue ribbon panel report on Trustee core competencies

The Center for Healthcare Governance (Center), an American Hospital Association (AHA) affiliate, released a report “Competency-Based Governance: A Foundation for Board and Organizational Effectiveness”. The report includes recommendations for hospital boards of trustees, educators and researchers to better understand and practice competency-based governance. The Blue Ribbon Panel on Trustee Core Competencies, convened by the Center and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), with funding from Hospira, Inc., sought to:

• identify individual board member core competencies that can be used to improve board and organizational performance; and

• provide guidance and direction for the field in developing educational and other resources to apply these competencies to the work of hospital and health system governing boards.

Panel members drew on their own experiences and reviewed work done by others to develop board and leadership competencies for both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. The panel then identified two sets of trustee core competencies—knowledge and skills competencies and personal competencies—which can be applied to the work of boards in both hospitals and health systems. The panel also considered what makes a board an effective team and identified and developed tools and resources to help boards apply competencies to health care organization governance.

(SOURCES: Modern Healthcare Magazine, http://modernhealthcare.com, March 2, 2009)