UK and US hospital governance, post-Francis edition

Dave West @Davidwwest at the Health Services Journal @HSJNews posts a pictogram showing the result of a survey among chairs of the hospital trust organizations in the National Health Service in the UK.  It was taken after issuance of the Francis Report, a review of the awful things that happened at Staffordshire Hospital.

I am breathless as I scan these results.  Why?  Because I know that if US hospital boards were surveyed on these same questions, the answers would be similar.  See my post below about mergers.  Our boards are so intent on so-called strategic moves that they fail to demand accountability and practice transparency with regard to clinical outcomes and other operational issues.

This is a moral failure of leadership.  Paul Wiles, former CEO of Novant, once said, with regard to quality and safety issues:

If you cannot see the face of your own relative in a patient, or if you can not see the face of your own son or daughter in the face of a distraught nurse or doctor who has made an error, I suggest that your executive talents would be better placed in other industries.

He said it with regard to CEO leaders, but it applies equally to hospital board members.