The governance team. A firsthand look at leadership practices

Findings from Phase 1 of the Partnership Study--a national, random sample of board chairmen, chief executive officers and medical staff presidents--paint a detailed picture of national practices of hospital governance teams. In addition, the findings point to a number of inconsistencies regarding the views that board chairmen, CEOs and medical staff presidents have about their leadership roles. Conducted by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and Ernst & Young, Phase 1 Partnership Study findings were reported in the January issue of Trustee (page 16). In Phase 2, of the Partnership Study, in-depth case studies were conducted to address these questions: How do the board chairman, CEO and medical staff president interact one-on-one and as group? How do these three health care leaders perceive one another? What attributes of effective working relationships exist among the three leaders? To answer these questions, confidential site visits were made to six hospitals identified in this article as Metropolitan, North Woods, Midwest, Suncoast, Mountain Valley and Southland (see Study Sites, page 13). Following are some preliminary impressions, based on five completed case-study site visits. The sixth study site visit was in progress at press time.