Board Work

American College of Healthcare Executives 2000 James A. Hamilton book of the year award

Written by Dennis Pointer and James Orlikoff, two of the most experienced and highly regarded governance consultants in the country, Board Work presents a practical model focusing on those factors that most affect board performance. Rich with prescriptive information, practical ideas, assessment tools, and examples, Pointer and Orlikoff provide the expert coaching boards need to do their best work and add value to their organizations.

Based on the authors' forty years of combined experience, this eye-opening book arms boards with tools and techniques to significantly enhance their performance and contributions. Pointer and Orlikoff forward concrete recommendations for implementing benchmark governance systems and practices, creating the essential guide for those who want to make a real difference on behalf of communities they serve.

"This is the best book on health care organization governance I have ever read."
—Stephen Shortell, Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley

The book contains no figures.

Health care boards have been caught off guard by the transformation of health care from a doctor-driven, hospital-centered industry to a complex web of networks and alliances. This book is rich with prescriptive information and practical ideas, exercises, and examples, all drawn from 40 collective years of working with health care boards.

American College of Healthcare Executives 2000 James A. Hamilton book of the year award

Written by Dennis Pointer and James Orlikoff, two of the most experienced and highly regarded governance consultants in the country, Board Work presents a practical model focusing on those factors that most affect board performance. Rich with prescriptive information, practical ideas, assessment tools, and examples, Pointer and Orlikoff provide the expert coaching boards need to do their best work and add value to their organizations.

Based on the authors' forty years of combined experience, this eye-opening book arms boards with tools and techniques to significantly enhance their performance and contributions. Pointer and Orlikoff forward concrete recommendations for implementing benchmark governance systems and practices, creating the essential guide for those who want to make a real difference on behalf of communities they serve.

"This is the best book on health care organization governance I have ever read."
—Stephen Shortell, Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley

Richard L. O'Brien

Two experienced researchers working with and consulting for healthcare governing boards have described and analyzed effective boards of healthcare organizations in this book. They explore responsibility structure, composition, functioning, and means of improving boards and their operation. The purpose is to provide board members, board chairs, and CEOs with practical ideas for transforming boards and enhancing board performance. Board members, chairs, and CEOs are the audience. This is also a good work for other senior healthcare managers and for students of healthcare administration. The responsibilities and operations of boards, and how to achieve effective board structure, composition, and functioning are discussed. Different kinds of healthcare boards and their relationships to related entities, either superior or subsidiary are described. Board education and development are also discussed, and selection, monitoring, rewards, and removal of CEOs are included. Specific instructions are provided for being a good board member. Twelve governance check-ups/inventories are provided. There are good diagrams illustrating major messages. This is a very useful, clear exposition presented in logical sequence, flowing smoothly from definition of the purpose of boards to effective modes of functioning to useful means for transforming boards to make them more effective. Practical and easy-to-implement guidance is provided for board members and chairs. This book is superior to and more accessible to board members than any other book I have read on the subject. Good references and recommendations for further reading are included, as are other resources for board education and development.I wish this book would be read by every board member and manager of the healthcare organizations with which I am involved and on the boards of which I sit. This is an excellent framework for annual review of board responsibilities and operations.

DENNIS D. POINTER is principal of Dennis D. Pointer & Associates, which has provided governance consultation and development services to more than three hundred health care organizations, nonprofits, governmental agencies, and commercial corporations. He has written many books and articles, including Really Governing, winner of the American College of Healthcare Executives Book of the Year Award. Dr. Pointer holds the John J. Hanlon Chair of Health Care Research and Policy in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. He is also the Austin Ross Professor, Department of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington (Seattle).

JAMES E. ORLIKOFF is president of Orlikoff & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in health care governance and leadership. A nationally recognized authority on effective governance, he has written ten books and more than fifty articles, and has consulted with more than five hundred organizations to strengthen their governance effectiveness. He is the National Advisor on Governance and Leadership to the American Hospital Association and the Health Forum and is a founding member of the Governance Advisors of the Governance Institute where he is a member of the faculty.