A key responsibility of the healthcare board involves management oversight and review, accomplished through routine CEO performance evaluation. The Joint Commission mandates routine assessment of chief executive performance, and observers clearly view this activity as a primary indicator of good governance. In recent years, CEO performance expectations have been tied increasingly to incentives related to quality and patient safety improvement measures, financial performance, or other goals important to the organization’s success. This is not a responsibility many board members enjoy, but it is fundamental to governance.

This Elements of Governance® offers the basic rationale for routinely conducting an evaluation of your chief executive officer, suggests a process for getting started, outlines the components you will need to have in place to administer the evaluation, and provides four sample evaluation tools.