Who does a "Community Not for Profit" hospital answer to?

If memory serves long ago in nursing school I learned that a hospital that was designated as the "Community Hospital" and It was Not for profit, and It was the ONLY hospital in the Community that the Board of trustees were answerable to the people of the community.

Not because it was owned by the community but because of it's status as "Community Hospital" combined with it being not for profit along with it being the only hospital because the people of the community were dependent on it.

Am I off base? Can someone provide factual information that would shed some light on this?

Hmmm....I don't have hard facts, just a coupla thoughts. There's two community hospitals in my area; one is Catholic and the other non-sectarian. I *thought* their status as "community" hospitals stemmed from the fact that neither was a teaching hospital and neither was a specialty center (like a trauma center). People in our area who have seriously major injuries or really funky diseases are not sent to the community hospitals, they are shipped to the bigger trauma centers and teaching hospitals.

Wonder if that's part of it?

The answer lies in who comprises the Board of Trustees and how trustees get on the board.

Start with the website for the specific hospital you're interested in to find out this info.

I work at a Not for Profit Community Hospital. It supports itself through donations and fundraisers directed to and organized by our hospital foundation. We accept no Federal Funds to operate. The monies we receive are earned through pt. care and services which are billed to the pt. and/or his provider be they Medicare, Medicaid, self-pay, or private insurers.

We also have a ladies auxillary which run a thrift shop. Their proceeds go toward the purchase of needed equipment. With these funds we have purchased state of the art pt. beds, bedside tables, a fetal heart monitor, Protocol VS monitors, new surgical carts, and I'm sure more things that I'm not aware.

We also run a nursing home. The auxillary often provides clothing for our elderly residents when in need and also for our hospital patients that have lost their belongings in auto accidents while traveling away from home.

We are overseen by a board of directors. We are governed by the rules that are in place for every other critical access facility across the country. We answer to the State and Federal inspectors. We are surveyed regularly for complience.

That is a good question. How they get on the board. I believe it is normally by some kind of election. Who elects them I have no clue.

If you're really interested, contact the hospital and talk to the CEO's secretary or the office of community relations or development. Tell them that you would like a copy of the articles of incorporation and a copy of the bylaws governing the board of trustees. Those two documents should give you most of the information you're looking for.

Well I looked at thier site before finishing this last post. Here is what I found:

It is a "Not For Profit 501[c]3 organization governed by a volunteer board of community members"

They are supported by thier own foundation.

I looked at thier web site. It states that the boards consist of "community members who volunteer their time." (I notice that 1/4 were physicians and the CEO was listed as a board member?!)

The Mission was to provide health services "to the people of the Community"

What does this all mean or tell us, if anything?

Contrast this with a for-profit hosptial with a board and shareholders. They may talk about what they do for the community, but their primary responsibility is to make money for the shareholders (this is neither good nor bad, it's just the way it is.) A non-profit exists usually because way back in the day, someone donated a bunch of money to found a hospital where one didn't exist before. A corporation was formed and bylaws written forming a board of directors (or trustees) who provide guidance for the hospital. They usually hire the major officers (CEO, COO, CNO, etc) and trust them to carry out the daily business of the hospital. As a non-profit, any money they make goes back into the hospital in the form of additional staff, equipment, new construction, etc, and it is not disbursed to shareholders in the form of dividends. In this way, they are said to serve the community. Usually local community members will sit on the board - in this way, the hospital direction should mesh with the community's sense of what it needs.