Healthcare Organization's (HCO) Board Analysis

Beatriz Peraza 

Healthcare Organization’s (HCO) Board

The Governance Institute define HCO’s as key members in the governing with skills to solved healthcare new challenges that require actions to fulfill responsibilities over their organizations. Board members play a key role for the institution in different aspects, for example in the financial, strategic, mission, vision and values of the organization’s implementation. HCO’s are known for being key members in the governing body, they face challenges taking over multiple responsibilities of the organization (The Governance Institute, 2009). Another aspect of their job is policy implementation, evaluation of business plans, enhance creditworthiness, monitor financial statements, communicate with senior management and managing the CEO.

The Governance Institute describes the HCO’s members as the best leaders, these are the key elements for the success of an organization and their stakeholders (2009). Examples of various committees in a HCO’s Board are: Ethics & Professionalism Committee (EPCOM), Executive Committee, (American Board of Medical Specialties, 2016), Quality Committee, Finance Committee (Central Peninsula Hospital, 2016), Regulatory, Audit Committee, Compliance & Government Affairs Committee (Johnson & Johnson, 2016).

The American Board of Medical Specialties Director’s (ABMS) was founded in 1993 to support the new advancements in medicine and technology, is recognized national wide under the non-for-profit organizations seeking for the improvement in quality care by standardizing medical practice and certifications. Their Executive Committee has the power to make all the decisions when the actual Board of Directors is absent or in meetings. The EPCOM function is to oversight and provide guidance over governing policies, procedures related to ethics and professionalism over physician practices (American Board of Medical Specialties, 2016).

Central Peninsula’s Finance Committee (CPGH) main purpose is to develop capital annual budgets to motivate staff and managers. In accordance with the Board of Director’s they strive to achieve organizational financial goals that are reviewed every month by the committee to develop strategic decisions. The Quality Committee is committed to just that, patient safety and customer service assisting with quality assurance plans; their main focus is on the integration of quality management plans and the analyzation of operational risk management. Looking for trends observed from patient care data collections and infection control. (Central Peninsula Hospital, 2016).

The Audit Committee report assists the Board of Directors by overseeing financial management, reporting company procedures from independent auditors and preparing the Report of the Audit Committee as mandated by the SEC rules. The Regulatory, Compliance & Government Affairs Committee reports to the Board of Directors from the oversighting of governmental issues and compliances of standards that could impact organizations. This is done by stablished standards and the enforcement of quality product, quality compliance and policies program (Johnson & Johnson Services, 2016).

Joint Commission Requirements

The Joint Commission was founded in 1951, their mission is to improve healthcare by evaluating organizations, facilities and providing safety high quality of care to the public. This is an independent non-for-profit agency that provides accreditations to certify HCO’s and over 21,000 healthcare organizations. They have a Board of Commissioners composed by 32 members, these are physicians, employers, nurses and educators (The Joint Commission, 2016). Joint Commission required standards are based on the evaluation, organization measure and performance improvement to help healthcare organizations. These are developed with inputs obtained from different sources, for example providers, consumers, Medicaid, Medicare and matter experts in healthcare and quality care. Joint Commission don’t require to all the members from the hospital board to sit as board members but they do require all medical staff to be eligible to participate in governance and at the same time to be represented at governing body meetings. Members of the hospital board are required to be competent in their fields but they don’t supply a standardized competence to evaluate these members. The requirement is suggesting that a leadership call was made for the focus to be an opportunity for providers to basically be proxies of medicine for their respective organizations as “independents”. This was created to ensure the proper handling and presentation of issues with the appointed provider when brought to the Board, these are there for consultations and as resources to monitor how the HCO is forging the organization future (Great Boards, 2011).

HCOs governing body have a moral obligation and a fiduciary obligation on decision making to protect the organization. Provide high-quality care must be employees main goal followed by safety practices for beneficiaries (The Governance Institute, 2009). Organizations are in need to keep communication with providers, reassessing their participation in governance and organizational leadership. Traditional models focus on hospitals boards; new trends are considering physician’s participation on parent boards investing in leadership development and relationship building. Hospitals will have the last word on this, they can start to lose strength or develop new relationship based on physician’s leadership to improve their organizations (Great Boards, 2011).

References

American Board of Medical Specialties. (2016). Committees of the ABMS Board of Directors. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.abms.org/about-abms/governance/committees-of-the-abms-board-of-directors/

Central Peninsula Hospital. (2016). Board Committees. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.cpgh.org/BoardCommittees

The Governance Institute. (2009). Leadership In Healthcare Organizations. Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/WP_Leadership_Standards.pdf

Johnson & Johnson Services. (2016). Committees of the Board of Directors. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from http://www.investor.jnj.com/gov/committee.cfm

The Joint Commission. (2016). About The Joint Commission. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from https://www.jointcommission.org/about_us/about_the_joint_commission_main.aspx

Great Boards. (2011). Physicians on Hospital Boards: Time for New Approaches.

Retrieved from http://www.greatboards.org/newsletter/2011/GreatBoards-reprint-2011-Physicians-on-Hospital-Boards.pdf