The Center for Healthcare Governance

The American Hospital Association'sCenter for Healthcare Governance (The center) is a membership based organization that is affiliated with the AHA. Founded in 2004 and based in Chicago, Illinois, Center members include more than 500 hospital and health system boards and other organizations that serve the health care sector. The center also provides governance resources and services to the more than 5,000 member organizations of the American Hospital Association. The Mission of the center is to bring about excellence and accountability in governance by being the valued source, for health care leaders and trustees, of innovative governance thinking, information, tools and content. The center is governed by a board of managers and also receives guidance on program and service development from a national board of advisors.
Governance education and development.
Each year the Center develops and conducts educational programs tailored to a variety of board needs. Programs include:
Publications.
The Center provides articles, monographs, books, tools and special reports on governance and leadership issues, including:
Guide to Good Governance.
The Guide to Good Governance for Hospitals is a comprehensive overview of governing board roles and responsibilities and the key components of good governance practice and contains tools to support a board to effectively govern.
Research and assessment.
In collaboration with the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) the center conducts national governance surveys, providing in-depth information on board structure, functions, and trends and more focused research on specific governance topics, such as the credit crisis and governance and board/physician relationships.
The center also offers a Governance Assessment Process (GAP) which provides resources and services for evaluating the performance of hospital and health systems boards as well as individual board members.
Blue Ribbon Panel Report: Building an Exceptional Board.
This report, published in 2007, provides an overview of five key board issues that are critical to effective governance and includes more than 15 sample tools and resources that boards have applied to move their performance from good to great. It also includes an overview of stretch practices for exceptional boards.
Blue Ribbon Panel Report: Competency-Based Governance.
This report, published in 2009, reviews application of governance and leadership competencies in for-profit and non-profit organizations, within and outside of healthcare. The panel recommended two sets of core competencies for hospital and health system trustees, included in this report, and also provided a series of recommendations to further incorporate the use of competencies through additional education, research and application to board practices.
Blue Ribbon Work Group on Competency-Based Governance.
Work is now underway to develop and test a variety of tools to apply governance competencies recommended by the Blue Ribbon Panel to board practices, such as trustee recruitment and selection, performance evaluation, board education and leadership development and succession planning.
Access to experts.
The Center provides access to a wide range of governance and leadership experts through its educational programs, Qualified Consulting service and Speakers Express online resource.