The shifting roles of CEOs and trustees.

Recently, the American College of Hospital Administrators (ACHA) competed studies on both the evolving role of the hospital CEO and how CEO performance is evaluated. This is the first of a two-part series of articles based on those studies. In this first article, the authors review the historical roles of both CEOs and trustees, how those responsibilities differ today according to the type of institution, what CEOs see as their ideal role, and the guidelines for action that the ACHA recommends for CEOs as a result of its study. The second article, which will appear in the August issue of Trustee, will focus on the ACHA's study of how CEO performance currently is being evaluated, what factors are included in such evaluations, who is responsible for them, how they are being conducted, and how to make the CEO evaluation process more deliberate, measured, and fair.