Governance Insights

New Data Shows Impacts of COVID-19

Governance and leadership are back in focus.


Every other year The Governance Institute conducts its nationwide survey of U.S. acute care, not-for-profit hospital boards. Our 2021 survey results showed early indications of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on governance focus (revealing a performance “plateau” or holding steady). However, we believe the 2023 results provide a much starker picture of the critical governance functions that were put on hold to deal with the pandemic, and thus a heightened urgency to revisit and accelerate these areas to move organizations in new and important directions.

Key Findings

Starting with the positive signs from the data, we are showing that board diversity efforts are starting to make an impact. Most boards (97%) have at least one female board member, and in 2023 we saw the most significant jump in boards that have six or more women (22% compared with 15% in 2021). In addition, 53% have between two and four.

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