If a new report is any indication, community-benefit oversight by health system governing boards is all over the map. The report, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and consulting firm Grant Thornton, concluded that boards seldom adhered to all of a list of governance standard developed by the researchers.
To conduct the study, researchers look at more than 100 boards, asking chief executives how well the boards followed 39 governance standards, including board size and diversity, committee organization and oversight of community benefits and quality.
Of systems that fell in the middle between the top and bottom-level performers, 65 percent had no formal community-benefit plan with measurable objectives. On the other hand, systems that followed good governance standards, including strong community-benefit plans, had better operating performance, as measured by data from Thomson Reuters.
To learn more about this study:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)
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