Governance: Critical Issues for Hospital CEOs and Boards

The articles, "Building Better Boards in the New Era of Accountability," by Orlikoff, and "Priority Issues for Hospital Boards," by Middleton, present a realistic appraisal of a challenging and complex environment in which hospital and health system boards and their CEOs operate today - and, increasingly, tomorrow. Beyond the points made in both of these excellent feature articles, the following comments are added: 1. If the effectiveness of governance is an important subject for your board, then having a governance committee, whose charge is to ensure the education, orientation, and ongoing value of the board, might be called for. 2. One of the few disappointments in the two feature articles is the lack of emphasis on the critical need for strategic planning at the governance level. 3. Hospitals and health systems are here to serve the community and its patients.