Healthcare Transformation A Guide for the Hospital Board Member ...

Conclusion: ἀ e Governance Engagement Checklist • 95
listen to patient stories of medical errors or near misses to identify systemlevel
improvements. The second is to ensure that the hospital has a system
in place to involve patients and families in performance improvement.
Finally, by being transparent with the community (local, peer, and provider
communities), all stakeholders are placed on the same level, which
can propel an organization from defending its performance to opening up
and accelerating its performance improvement. Figure 12.2 summarizes
the key elements into a governance checklist.
The same governance checklist can be reformatted as a graph (see Figure
12.3) to show how a board of directors can move along these three major
pillars. As seen in the bar diagram, to move up the quality literacy pillar,
a board will start with awareness of the issues and move toward education,
dialogue, and expertise. To move up the agenda/alignment pillar, the
board will move from setting aims to monitoring a measurable strategic
and operating plan to hardwiring accountability. To move up the patientcenteredness
pillar, the board will move from capturing patient input to
patient involvement to being transparent on performance.
As a hospital board member and leader, use the individual healthcare
transformer chapters, this governance engagement checklist, and the
appendix that compiles all of the board questions. The board questions are
Quality Literacy
• Conduct ongoing education on salient quality issues
• Continuously question the pace of improvement in the organization
• Ensure that expertise in healthcare quality, patient safety, and transformational
change is present on the board
Agenda and Alignment
• Devote sufficient time on the agenda for quality and have open dialogue on the
agenda for emerging quality issues
• Set bold aims that articulate clear goals with clear dates
• Effectively monitor system-level performance
• Align the quality plan with the overall organizational strategic plan
• Develop and monitor a strategy map that links key projects to strategic drivers to
measures and goals
• Set financial incentives for leadership on the basis of overall quality goals
Patient-Centeredness
• Have patients and families share stories to serve as an input for board
agenda-setting
• Involve patients and families in improvement initiatives
• Be transparent with the community on performance
Figure 12.2
Governance engagement checklist.