A SERIES SUMMARY: The Single, Tragic, Yet Avoidable, Mistake Made By Community Health Center Boards:

A SERIES SUMMARY: The Single, Tragic, Yet Avoidable, Mistake Made By Community Health Center Boards:

1. Failing to Hire an Operationally Strong Executive Director.

This single, tragic mistake, and this mistake alone, is not only the Board’s biggest mistake, but also it will lead to:

The Major Errors

a. Failing to define the mission and purpose of the Community Health Center
(CHC).
b. Giving the CHC tasks that are not consistent with its mission.
c. CHCs using weak providers as its cornerstone.
d. Ineffective finances and financials.
e. Over-reliance on consultants.
f. Failure to develop management staff.
g. Expecting the CHC to handle work without getting paid.
h. Choosing an inappropriate computer system and software.
i. Maintaining the status quo.

If these sound familiar, read on.

If they sound painfully familiar, you may want to re-read this series. http://effectivepracticemanagement.blogspot.com/2009/01/report.html

An effective community health center executive director does not need to be a stereotypical leader in the sense that the term is now used. As Peter Drucker outlined in “What Makes and Effective Executive”, leaders are all over the map in terms of personality, attitude, values, strengths, and weaknesses.

The Eight Practices

What makes community health center executive directors effective is that they follow these eight practices:
1. They ask: what needs to be done?
2. They ask: what is right for the CHC?
3. They develop action plans.
4. They take responsibility for their decisions.
5. They take responsibility for communicating.
6. They focus on opportunities rather than problems.
7. They run productive meetings.
8. They think and say “we” rather that “I”.

Does this sound familiar to the Community Health Center’s Board?
Is this what exists within your community health center’s Executive Director?

If so, you are quite fortunate. If not, I hope that this series of posts has helped your community health center to serve its medically underserved patients.

Next post: ADDRESSING THE MAJOR MISTAKES COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS MAKE – Mistakes 1, 2, and 3