The men and women who volunteer their time to sit on boards of trustees for healthcare providers represent some of the best community leaders in North Texas. We thank them for their advice and commitment to healthcare. During a typical year, they spend countless hours serving the community.



As healthcare reform moves towards fully integrated and accountable care systems, providers will need unparalleled assistance from its board of trustees. Providers are moving towards transforming acute episodic focus to span the entire care continuum. The traditional fiduciary responsibility of protecting assets will expand into protecting population health. Key issues that hospital boards must consider include healthcare moving to new performance models integrating financial risk and care delivery. Leadership must balance the clinical, financial, operational and cultural integration needed for future healthcare delivery.

Many remember the implementation of the The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, a U.S. federal law that set new standards for public company boards requiring independent experts in finance and audits. That experience should assist us. We will need advice from our board members regarding population health, patient engagement, quality metrics, biotechnology and information system overhauls. Providers will need to tap new levels of expertise from its board members. Of special value will be leaders from other businesses outside of healthcare that have experienced similar industry changes.

More than ever before, today’s healthcare providers will need their boards’ leadership and knowledge as they move from a sick care system to a health care system.