Board Self-Assessments

Strong board performance is vital to the success of every organization.

THT recommends that hospital and health system boards establish self-assessment as a recurring process with a formal assessment performed at least once a year. The self-assessment can reflect both the quality of the board’s experience, as well as assessing its effectiveness against the important responsibilities of serving the patients of the community it represents.

In this era of health reform and major changes in the health care delivery system, health care organizations are being challenged as never before. In many cases, external forces loom as a serious threat to institutional viability. Self-assessment is a tool for boards to better understand how well they are prepared to meet these challenges. Self-assessment can help show a board where its strengths lie as well as where improvements may be needed. It is an important function that should be an ongoing part of serving on any hospital or system board.

Board Self-Assessment can help measure a hospital board’s knowledge of:

• The mission of the hospital or health system.
• Industry trends and developments.
• Monitoring strategy.
• Overseeing programs, services and financial reports.
• Understanding of board structure and composition.
• Recruiting best practices.

The self-assessment can also be a tool to help board leadership gauge and monitor board meeting participation, as well as set board development priorities and motivate board members. To individual board members, it can also provide valuable individual feedback of attitude.

Through this survey, your board can focus on what’s critical for success by establishing and measuring a common understanding of board roles and responsibilities.