Hospitals without walls: trustees reach out to the community. Interview by Karen Gardner

"A futurist is someone who either predicts or invents the future, and I really try to do both," says Leland R. Kaiser, Ph.D., president of Kaiser & Associates, Brighton, CO, and associate professor, University of Colorado at Denver School of Business. Kaiser--a former hospital trustee--says, "When you're inventing the future, you're using a vision of how you would like to see the organization be in the future, and then you help the organization achieve that." Kaiser concentrates on helping institutions achieve a vision that has been formed by his many years of health care and management experience as well as an extraordinary sensitivity to the needs of communities and the potential that the United States health care system has to address those needs. Futurist Kaiser recently spoke with Trustee editor Karen Gardner about his vision of health care delivery, the central role that trustees must play in order to realize that vision, and the promise of a truly community-based health care system.