Improving Your Governing Board’s Effectiveness Vol. 2, No. 1


By Colin Rorrie


You have been asked by your physician partners to serve as a physician representative on your ASC’s board of directors. While you


are honored to have been asked, you are also concerned since you haven’t ever served on a governing board before. You want to make sure that you do a good job. The question is how to be prepared. A few recommendations follow.


Background Find out who is responsible for providing administrative services to the board, including managing meetings. Schedule a meeting with that individual to learn everything you need to know. How often does the board meet? When will you receive the meeting materials, including the agenda and background documents? Request minutes of the last two years of meetings. Obtain the current year’s budget and financial statements. A good general request is for any materials that will help you be a more informed board member.


First Meeting Preparation Hopefully, you received the meeting materials with enough time to review them before the meeting. A best practice is a week in advance. Set aside enough time to review the documents. If you have questions, ask the board chair or a responsible staff member before the meeting. This doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions at the meeting, but obtaining answers beforehand will facilitate the meeting’s effectiveness. Prior review of the materials is important because you don’t want to


be in a position of asking a question covered in the meeting documents.


Another good practice is to call the board chair before your first meeting to discuss the meeting dynamics. How do the different board members operate? Are there more dominant individuals? What is the protocol for asking a question? What is the chair’s expectation of you as a board member?


The Meeting Your first meeting has arrived. The chair may ask you to make a few remarks about what you hope to offer through your participation. In your pre-meeting call with the chair, find out if you will be asked to make any opening comments. A common challenge for a new member of a board is knowing how often to speak. Some speak too much while others say little, if anything. A good practice is to pick out a couple of issues on the agenda where you feel you can best contribute. Make a note of the points you want to make, electronically or on an index card, so you will remember them when the issue comes up. By picking a few topics, you can easily move into the flow of the meeting. This doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t offer your thoughts on other issues where you feel you have pertinent points to make.


Post-Meeting Either during the meeting or at its end, the chair may ask for assistance on issues requiring further work. You want to be viewed as a team player, so identify an issue where you feel you can contribute and volunteer to help. At the end of the meeting or shortly thereafter, follow up with the board


Results of a recent study published in Neurosurgery indicate that ASCs are an appropriate setting for a variety of spine procedures.


The researchers reviewed literature published on PubMed. They specifically reviewed about 40 clinical studies reporting morbidity and outcomes data for cervical and lumbar surgeries performed in ASCs, focusing on anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, posterior cervical foraminotomy, cervical arthroplasty, lumbar microdiscectomy, lumbar laminectomy and minimally invasive transforaminal interbody fusion and lateral lumbar interbody fusion.


member tasked with leading on the issue to learn how you can be helpful and the timeframe for your input. Make sure you meet the deadline. As a new board member, you don’t want to be viewed as not fulfilling your responsibility.


Final Points In this period of facility consolidation and price sensitivity, it is essential that an ASC’s physicians have active and consistent representation in the governance of the ASC. This means that those representing the center’s physicians must ensure that they fulfill their responsibilities, whether it is by attending board meetings or completing an assignment for an upcoming meeting.


While there will be an occasional crisis that will prevent one from attending a meeting, it is important that nonattendance doesn’t become a pattern. Consistent participation is critical to ensure that the physician voice is represented in the decisions guiding the center’s operation. When an absence is anticipated, communication should occur with the other physician board members or the board chair to share one’s views on the pending agenda items.


Colin Rorrie is president of CCR & Associates, a consulting firm based in Dallas, Texas. Write him at crorrie1@yahoo.com.


The advice and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent official Ambulatory Surgery Center Association policy or opinion.


Study: ASCs an Appropriate Site for Spine Surgery


The literature review indicated there is ample retrospective comparisons and case series evidence to support the safety and effectiveness of outpatient cervical and lumbar surgery. They conclude with the following: “While further studies are needed to understand how best to select optimal patients for ASCs and maximize perioperative analgesia, the fact remains that the evidence for the safety and utility of multiple outpatient spine procedures is robust and growing. In light of this, providers, payers, hospitals, and patients all stand to benefit if greater investments are made in ASCs for spine surgery.”


Access the study at https://goo.gl/NVfkze. ASC PHYSICIAN FOCUS 3


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