The Missouri Hospital Association has awarded 40 hospital trustees with Governance Excellence certificates to acknowledge their completion of its new voluntary educational program for hospital board members. The Governance Excellence Certificate Program was launched in 2011 to enhance hospital trustees’ skills and provide them with increased knowledge of issues in hospital governance to help them make effective decisions for their organizations.

The trustees were recognized Thursday, June 14, at the MHA Leadership Forum in Branson.

“Hospitals are complex organizations,” said Herb B. Kuhn, MHA president and CEO. “To add value to decisions about hospital operations and support a hospital’s work in the community, a trustee must have a thorough understanding of a range of responsibilities in governance practices and the integration of the hospital’s mission and values. The Governance Excellence Certificate Program is designed to expand trustees’ knowledge base and provide enhanced decision-making skills.” To complete the certificate program, trustees were required to attend a day-long session at MHA’s annual convention in November 2011 and complete six of eight independent study modules. The certificate recipients serve as trustees at 19 Missouri hospitals.

Certificate recipients included: El Dorado Springs – Cedar County Memorial Hospital – Jan Neale.

The Missouri Hospital Association is a not-for-profit association in Jefferson City that represents 154 Missouri hospitals. In addition to representation and advocacy on behalf of its membership, the association offers continuing education programs on current health care topics and seeks to educate the public, as well as legislative representatives, about health care issues..