NewsLine - December 2012 - (Page 9)

When did you decide to retire, and how did you handle notification to the board and staff? In 2006, following the deaths of both my mother and mother-inlaw, my husband and I discussed our goals for the future. It was at that time that I decided I would retire in 2010—I would be 60 and Mike would be 66—but I kept the decision to myself. As the time approached, however, I decided to delay my retirement. There were several challenges facing the organization around that time and leaving the hospice stronger than it had ever been was a personal commitment of mine. So I did discuss my retirement plans with the board’s Executive Committee in November of 2010, but with a plan to retire the following year. When my retirement was announced to the senior leadership team and the hospice’s full board in November of 2011, the hospice was well on its way to achieving the goals set for census, market share, cost-per-patient day, and employee turnover. Staff morale was also high, as reflected in the employee engagement scores of our STAR report. So I felt good about the timing and the decision to wait. I shared the news with our entire staff on January 1, 2012 in my New Year’s memo to them. Did the organization have a formal succession plan in place? Yes. While working with the board’s Executive Committee on planning their annual retreat in January 2007, I had suggested that they look at succession planning. I had already begun looking at planning for the hospice’s key positions and wanted the board to begin thinking about the CEO position. As a first step, we invited Michael Covert, CEO of the Palomar Pomerado Health System, to attend the retreat and discuss the planning process he had initiated for the health system’s board. The key takeaways from his discussion were the need to develop a plan in conjunction with defining the organization’s strategic goals and to develop the plan well before the need to fill a vacancy arises. So a committee was created, comprised of members of our hospice board and foundation board. The group was charged with defining the CEO succession process, including the development of an emergency transition plan and review of the CEO position description and annual evaluation process. I worked closely with the committee, providing resources I had obtained through the Nonprofit Management Resource Center and Board Source as well as through my own experience while continued on next page NewsLine 9 http://www.nhpco.org/star

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NewsLine - December 2012

Newsline - December 2012
Reframing Advance Care Planning
A Message From Don
Free ACP Symposium
Choosing Wisely Initiative
Succession Planning
NHPCO Honors Exemplary Hospice Service
Hospice in the Continuum
10 Ways to Help Hospice
The Voice of NCHPP
Managing Accountability
My.NHPCO: A Great Resource for Managers
Simione: Solving Your Hospice Challenges (display ad)
Add CGAs to Your Giving Menu (display ad)
Winning Entries from the 2012 Creative Arts Contest
Member News and Notes
Compliance Tip
2013 MLC Plenary Speakers (display ad)
Videos Worth Watching
Resource Links to Bookmark

NewsLine - December 2012