The 2012 AHA Annual Membership Meeting May 6–9 in Washington, D.C., is an excellent opportunity for new and returning board members to stay current on the latest news and trends in both health care and health care governance. You'll hear from noted experts and congressional leaders, and have the opportunity to voice your concerns with AHA staff.
There also are educational opportunities just for trustees. The AHA's Center for Healthcare Governance again will sponsor three educational sessions:
On Sunday, May 6, Center President and Chief Operating Officer John Combes, M.D., and Barry S. Bader, president of Bader & Associates, will walk participants through how their board and governance practices compare with those of their peers in such areas as board member selection, assessment, competencies and culture, and discuss the implications of the data for board performance in "How Does Your Board Stack Up? The State of Governance with Insights from the 2011 American Hospital Association Governance Survey."
On Monday, May 7, James E. Orlikoff, president, Orlikoff & Associates Inc., will present "Effective Leadership in Times of Transformative Change," which will examine strategies for thriving in the current environment of change, heightened quality expectations and declining reimbursement.
On Tuesday, May 8, Douglas Brown, senior vice president and general counsel, UMass Memorial Health Care, and Larry Prybil, professor and associate dean, University of Kentucky, will focus on seven specific benchmarks of great governance recently developed by a panel of national governance experts sponsored by the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care in "Practical Steps for Transforming Your Governance: New Benchmarks to Take Your Board to the Next Level of Performance."
In addition, on Tuesday the COG again will sponsor the trustee leadership breakfast. This year we will be joined by political analyst Mark Shields.
I urge you to take advantage of these programs and look forward to welcoming you in May. Visit www.aha.org for more information and to register today.
Kimberly McNally (kamcnally@att.net) is COG chair and a trustee of Harborview Medical Center/UW Medicine in Seattle.
