Trustee Responsibilities in Healthcare Organizations

DISCUSSION BOARD POSTING WEEK 1

Discussion Board Posting Week 2

The discussion scenario is: A prominent business leader who is being considered for trustee says, “This mission/vision/value stuff is really just window dressing. The HCO’s mission is obvious. Stakeholders’ lives won’t change if you don’t have vision and values statements. You probably don’t pay much attention to them anyway.” Should the CEO respond and how?

It would be helpful for the CEO to respond. First, trustees serve on the board, and like directors, play a crucial role in corporate governance. They are responsible for providing accountability and oversight, as well as offering guidance in strategic planning (Minor, 2007). One of the primary duties of the board in a healthcare organization is to establish the vision, mission, and core values that govern the organization’s operations, and to monitor the mission’s effectiveness in light of evolving stakeholder needs (Griffith & White, 2019).

To effectively realize these objectives, trustees require an adequate understanding of the organization’s mission, visions, and core values. These elements govern their decision-making. For instance, they may be required to monitor how well individual clinical employees implement the organization’s mission in offering specific kinds of care. However, trustees may not provide effective governance and leadership if they do not implement the vision and mission themselves or do not understand the importance of the same. The business leader seems to downplay the importance of the organization’s mission and vision, which may limit their ability to offer effective governance to the staff.

The CEO needs to respond by offering information and education support to the potential trustee on the importance of the mission, vision, and core values in governing the organization’s operations (Griffith & White, 2019). Further, the CEO needs to offer education and information support on the duties and responsibilities of trustees, including the duty of prudence, duty of trust, trustee liability, conflicts of interest, and the trustees’ responsibility towards clinical staff. For instance, trustees serve in committees of the board, where they may be required to make decisions affecting patient care and physicians (Caroll, 2009). Such decision-making requires an adequate understanding of the organization’s history, mission, and vision as the trustees will need to determine how relevant these are to the needs of current stakeholders (Caroll, 2009; Griffith & White, 2019). The trustee needs to understand that they make decisions on the community’s behalf and their decisions should serve the interest of the community (Griffith & White, 2019). Trustees are likely to make better decisions is they are adequately informed about their duties and responsibilities. The CEO may offer this kind of education through a presentation or other written documents.

In addition to education, it may be important for the CEO to bring the issue to the appointing committee to reassess the suitability of the potential trustee. Griffith and White (2019) point out that board members, including trustees, need to be competent enough to serve regardless of their standing in society. It may be important to look into the candidate’s reputation. According to Griffith and White (2019), an individual’s reputation represents their character, credibility, and is an indicator of how they will act. The appointing committee may need to look at how the candidate performed in their past positions as trustees and board members to determine suitability. Trustees with questionable reputations limit the board’s ability to act in prudence as required by law (Griffith & White, 2019).