by Christopher Cornue

As part of an ongoing series reviewing my first 100 days as a CEO, I spent the first 45 to 60 days assessing the current culture, operations, strategy and environment at my new hospital. My initial (and lasting) assessment: I'm working for a wonderful group of individuals--the employees, physicians, board, community, etc.--everyone has been so welcoming and positive!

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by Christopher Cornue

Nick Jacobs recently wrote about what he will miss as a hospital CEO and, like most of you, I enjoyed reading about his final thoughts as he leaves his current role.

At the same time Nick is leaving his CEO role, I've had the opportunity, as some of you may know, to start a role as CEO. In September 2008, I started as the CEO of a hospital in Colorado. Now, I've read up on the "First 100 Days" literature, planned an approach to those first few days, and worked to identify what my leadership will look like. Still, while all of this has been done with the best intentions, no amount of preparation can adequately prepare one completely for assuming a CEO role.

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by Nick Jacobs

Periodically, I write about articles that have appeared in Modern Healthcare; one of my favorite writers is Charles Lauer, former VP- publishing and editorial director of the magazine. The sweet irony of his most recent article, "Growing Evidence, Studies show the therapeutic value of healing gardens" was difficult for me to express.

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Just last week, Jim Collins published a monograph: Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer

(Taken from a review I wrote for amazon.com)
As a non-profit leader, I've been waiting for this monograph to be published for several months, and Collins did not disappoint.

In a lucid style that only Collins can deliver, he masterfully explains the subtle (but seismic) concepts of good to great for the social sector. Similar to his previous books, he effectively uses a broad array of real-life examples (e.g. the NYPD, a church, the Girl Scouts, the Cleveland Orchestra, a high school science dept), helpful graphics, and a very readable, conversational tone. Even though the monograph is only 31 pages, he contributes his clear thinking on numerous issues that will be very familiar to social sector leaders:
- how to measure success in non-$ metrics
- how to recruit and motivate a passionate (and poorly-paid or unpaid) staff
- how to think differently about "restricted funds"
- how to transcend systemic / external problems.

I particularly enjoyed his discussion on "legistative" leadership (versus "executive" leadership in the business world). Collins predicts a dramatic reversal - that one day non-profit leaders, who have mastered legistative leadership, will be wooed away to lead for-profit businesses. Also, he says that the true difference is not between for-profit vs. non-profit, but good vs. great - regardless of organization type.

This monograph does stand on its own. However, I think you would have to be fairly familiar with the concepts in Good to Great to fully appreciate the value of this monograph.

Regardless, I would recommend this to every hospital leader. For $9-10, you really can't go wrong.

Consumer Reports and Health Improvement Institute have launched a beta site for comparing consumer health websites: healthratings.org

Two things I find particularly impressive:
(1) The site provides strengths AND weaknesses for each site. For example, for WebMD, weaknesses mentioned include: "busy with distracting advertising; poor visual representation of pages."
(2) The site attempts to objective rank each website along 9 dimensions (e.g.identity, ease of use, design, coverage, etc). Maybe I'm just a sucker for harvey ball graphics.

By the way, the only hospital to make the top 20 is Mayo Clinic.

Is there a day coming when such a site would exist for hospital websites?