Healthcare Transformation: A Guide for the Hospital Board Member

Designed for easy reference, this concise manual provides hospital board members and executives with practical guidance on how to become actively engaged in the transformation of their organization. It focuses on how the healthcare industry as a whole is transforming and stresses the importance of having board members who are knowledgeable and skilled enough to provide leadership during this time of great opportunity.  

This manual is ideal for orienting new board members and for providing more experienced members with insight on key issues. It supplies a list of questions to ask stakeholders that will facilitate engagement and ultimately encourage participation. Each of the chapters is organized around action steps referred to as Top Healthcare Transformers. These are designed to disseminate best practices, build organizational quality, establish transparency, and develop the culture and leadership needed to facilitate change that is intelligent and progressive. Each of those 10 chapters includes –

• The Problem: A brief, quantitative look at the problem
• The Transformer: What will transform and make healthcare different
• Best Practices: Examples of current best practices indicative of the transformer
• Board Questions: Questions every board member should consider asking and every executive should be prepared to answer

A concluding chapter provides the overall governance engagement checklist—the things to do to make certain that board members and senior colleagues are engaged and prepared to lead your organization’s transformation. 

Includes a foreword by John R. Combes, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer, Center for Healthcare Governance

Maulik S. Joshi, DrPH, is president of the Health Research and Educational Trust and senior vice president of research at the American Hospital Association. Dr. Joshi was previously the president and chief executive officer of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI), the mission of which is to accelerate the improvement of the value (quality and cost) of healthcare delivery in the United States by building and strengthening regional, multistakeholder coalitions and influencing national policy for regional coalitions.

Dr. Joshi has also served as a senior advisor for the Office of the Director for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and previously as the president and chief executive officer of the Delmarva Foundation. During his tenure at the Delmarva Foundation, the organization was the recipient of the 2005 U.S. Senate Productivity award, the highest-level award in the state of Maryland, on the basis of the national Malcolm Baldrige criteria for performance excellence.

Dr. Joshi serves on multiple organizational governance or advisory boards, including being a member of the Board of Trustees Quality and Patient Safety Committee for Catholic Healthcare Partners, the Holy Cross Health System Board of Trustees Quality Committee, the Board of Governors for the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Lafayette College Leadership Council; treasurer of the Board of Trustees for the 110 • Authors Center for the Advancement of Health; and secretary of the Board of Trustees for The Country School. Dr. Joshi was selected as one of the ÒHealthcare Up and ComersÓ by Witt/Kieffer and Modern Healthcare; one of Philadelphia’s outstanding Ò40 Under 40Ó leaders by the Philadelphia Business Journal for commitment to professional excellence and contributions to the community; and as one of the Ò21 Voices for Quality for the 21st CenturyÓ by the American Society for Quality.

Bernard J. Horak holds a PhD from The George Washington University with specialties in health services administration and organization behavior and development. He also has a MHA in hospital administration from Baylor University and a MS in systems management from the University of Southern California. Dr. Horak is a professor and director of the Graduate Program in Health Systems Administration at Georgetown University.

Dr. Horak was director of Strategic Planning and Total Quality Management at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He has held other positions including that of chief operating officer, associate administrator for Clinical Services, and administrator of a family practice clinic. Dr. Horak has also been a consultant in the areas of patient safety, teambuilding, cultural change, strategic planning, worker satisfaction, leadership development, customer service, and the use of information technology to improve patient care. His clients have included Humana, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Food and Drug Administration, the General Services Administration, The Smithsonian Institution, the DC Primary Care Association, Pfizer, Merck, Provident Bank, and the U.S. Postal Service. Internationally, he has consulted in Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belize, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Horak is a Fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives (FACHE) and a Certified Professional of Healthcare Quality (CPHQ). He was awarded the Bronze Star for his leadership of medical units during the Gulf War.