Governing boards of health systems tend to be conservative and bound by tradition, often populated by pillars of the local community who have a vested interest in helping the organization succeed but who tend to be averse to change.
And yet, especially considering the effects of Covid-19 and recent societal upheaval around issues like structural racism and health equity, it is time for health care boards to get creative and adopt new procedures and practices, especially regarding diversity. They would be well served by pressure testing and changing some of their “time-honored” practices and modernizing.
Our firm, WittKieffer, recently partnered with the Health Management Academy on a comprehensive governance report drawing qualitative and quantitative information from key executives at 25 leading health systems that represent 432 hospitals and $6.3 billion in average total operating revenue. The report, “Governance & Executive Leadership Trends Across Leading Health Systems,” outlines the objectives these health systems have developed to improve their governance activities as well as the roadblocks preventing them from doing so. The report focuses on boards’ goals related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and whether or not they are successfully achieving them.
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