In September 2000, Valerie Huyge began working as the corporate executive assistant for Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare. In the last 10 years, she has seen the organization experience enormous growth and move from a public community hospital to a private, not-for-profit, acute care community hospital. The organization has almost doubled its employee base and now has about 1450 employees, making it the second-largest employer in Carson City—first being the State of Nevada. Through working as the corporate executive assistant, she has worked with the board of directors and their committees to keep them organized, informed, and able to make tough decisions throughout the organization’s transformation.

“I have been very fortunate in timing because I’ve been through all these changes with the hospital, including going from a five-member public board to a 14-member private board,” Huyge said. “I think I’ve been absolutely blessed.”

In the past few years, Carson Tahoe has made several acquisitions and has grown tremendously. It now offers several new services, such as an offsite surgery center, women’s center, inpatient geriatric department, cancer center, imaging center, urgent care clinics, and retail clinics. It has also started employing physicians, which created a whole different set of rules for the board to learn. Through it all, Huyge has been there to help guide the board in staying true to its mission "to enhance the health and well-being of the communities it serves." Carson Tahoe’s growth and change in structure is now affecting the board, which is evolving from being a hospital board to a health system board, bringing with it new ways of thinking and reporting that it is beginning to prepare for.

Recently, Huyge worked with the board to make changes of its own, moving from paper-based practices to the convenience of an iPad. In December, she helped introduce the iPad to board and committee members, which has been a surprisingly positive experience for everyone. Even those most likely to be resistant to the change have embraced the new technology and are enthused about the benefits it brings.

“It’s quite a transition; it is not something that I would call easy, but it’s exciting and I love it and all of the board members love it,” she said. “I haven’t heard any complaints yet.”

Throughout the last few months, Huyge has worked closely with the board and committee members training them on their iPads and bringing in help from the IT department. By introducing the iPad and making the move to electronic materials, they have been able to save a lot of time and resources. It has eliminated the need to use cases upon cases of paper and spend several hours manually preparing paper packets for board meetings and then driving to the post office to ship them out. The iPads have also proved to keep the board meetings more organized and improve communications, since board members now have all the information they need for meetings at their fingertips.

Another way Huyge has increased board productivity is by turning the iPads into a limited portal where the board and committee members can access everything from bylaws and policies to educational materials. She regularly updates and posts organizational news, information, and meeting materials to the server and internal intranet. This has replaced the previous Web site they used for board resources. It is still early in the process, and Huyge is working on learning new ways to improve the portal. Recently she worked with The Governance Institute to learn how to implement the tools its board portal offers. She hopes to eventually be able to set it up for polling board members and is looking forward to learning more about the opportunities it will bring. Her passion for the job inspires her to think continuously of new, improved ways to support the board and its committees.

“My main focus is always on the board,” Huyge said. “I enjoy researching, creating agendas and packet materials, organizing and helping others to stay organized, creating policies, and working with board members, the CEO, and legal counsel.”

Huyge has learned to set her board up for success through keeping them informed of hospital news and future plans of the CEO. She assists the CEO in creating a weekly board briefing that lets the board know what has happened that week and what the CEO sees coming. This helps keep them informed at the very top level. She also sends out hospital news that the employees receive to the board at least quarterly. She has found that the board is very interested in whether or not the employees are happy, so this helps keep them up-to-date on the employee side of things. Her experience has also taught her the importance of keeping herself updated about national and local news, so that she can answer the board members’ questions regarding, for example, whether or not a bill passed.

“You definitely need to be interested in law and be able to work closely with your legal counsel and other attorneys in this position,” Huyge said. “I stay informed and I try to be as organized as possible because, if you’re not organized, it’s impossible to do this job.”

From travel arrangements to board packets to coordinating board education, staying organized is key for Huyge. Keeping the board members on track means she needs to be always accessible to them and punctual about getting them the information they need for meetings or trips. She has also learned to be a memory for the board, keeping files of everything from yearly goals to meeting notes. That way if a board member asks her about something that happened a year ago, she can go back and find the answers.

The best part for Huyge is that she loves what she does, so staying on top of her duties and working towards the organization’s vision has been nothing less than remarkable. Throughout her decade of working at Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare she has come to truly enjoy the complex, ever-changing world of healthcare and learning about the inner working of her organization.

“Knowing our strategic and future plans and helping out with accomplishing those plans has been really rewarding for me,” she said. “I especially enjoy working with the brilliant people on our board, our committees, and on our staff.”

The Governance Institute thanks Valerie Huyge, corporate executive assistant for Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare, for taking the time to be interviewed for this article and sharing her experience as a governance support professional.