If you’ve ever served, or are currently serving, on the board of a hospital, then you’re already familiar with several of the challenges facing board members. Problems are unavoidable, but, especially during these times of funding cuts, increasing restrictions, and evolving models of care, how we deal with these problems is critical.

Here are three of the most prominent problems facing hospital board members:

1. Unnecessary Care: Needlessly prescribing, testing, and performing surgery against evidence-based best practices is taken very seriously. It is important that management upholds the high standards to which they are held.

2. Physician Partnership: The structure of the hospital business model has greatly changed over the year. Physicians are indispensable partners, with, typically, far more technological experience than most board members. On top of that, physicians are depending less and less on hospitals for job security. This partnership is critical, which makes recognizing and fostering it especially important.

3. Clinical Innovation: Technology is evolving, and hospitals should evolve with it. When selecting new technologies, hospital boards should take into consideration which innovations are in the best interest of their community, while also staying within budget at all times.

To read about more of the problems facing hospital boards, be sure to check out this Hospitals & Health Networks article, “The Buck Stops…Where?”, written by Paul Keckley.