Ever wonder who makes most of the big decisions at our Hospital? It’s the Board of Directors. There are 12 voting Directors and five non-voting ex-officio Directors. These ex-officio Directors are the CEO, the Chief of Staff, the Chief Nurse and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Professional Staff Association.
So how do the 12 voting directors get appointed? Who elects or chooses them? Many of you may be surprised to learn that they elect themselves. They choose who remains on the Board and they choose who replaces those who are leaving. I know it sounds absurd but it’s true. The only people who can vote at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) are the current Board members and a small number of former Board members.
Only Term Members can vote at the AGM. All 12 current voting Directors are Term Members.The By-Laws of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare clearly identify who is a Term Member. All former voting Directors are Term Members. However six years after they became Directors, their Term Member status expires. Today there are maybe four to six former Directors who can vote. For this article let’s say it’s five.
Under that assumption, at the next Annual General Meeting in June, there will be 17 Term Members who can vote, and 12 of them are the current-voting Directors of the Board. The Board effectively controls every decision at the AGM, including who gets elected to the Board of Directors. It’s that simple.
But wait, it gets better. Let’s suppose that there are three current Directors retiring. The Nominating Committee (consisting of three Board members) evaluates all applicants, interviews a short list and recommends to the Board the three applicants who should be nominated. The Board concurs and at the AGM in June there are three nominations (all voted on by the Board) for the three vacancies. That’s not an election. That’s an acclamation.
I say again, I know it sounds absurd but it’s true. Is this how a publicly funded and publicly owned Hospital should be governed?
Before someone tries to discredit the above by bringing up my past life, let me save him or her the trouble. Years ago I was ‘acclaimed’ to the Board, twice under this exact model. I served for six years as a Director, two of those years as Chair, and I did nothing to change this. I should have. I didn’t. However what I did or didn’t do years ago is not relevant today and not important to anyone but me. Someone who brings this up today is simply trying to divert the discussion from the real question. How do we get this poor governance model changed now?
And here’s the rub. The By-Laws need to be changed and these amended By-Laws voted upon at an Annual General Meeting. Now remember who gets to vote at this meeting. That’s right, the 17 people identified earlier, 12 of whom are on the current Board of Directors. Why would any Board give up the power and control it currently enjoys?
The answer could be because it’s the right thing to do. The answer could be that the people of Muskoka deserve a better governance model. Or maybe the answer is that good governance leads to better health care for all. I actually believe it’s all of the above and probably more.
I also believe that someone should ask the current Directors what they think. Someone should ask them what they think needs to be done. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be pleasantly surprised by their answer.
If the current Board chooses not to deal with this and leaves it as is, there’s very little the people of Muskoka can do. I believe the Province has the authority to in some manner change this or force the Board to change this deeply flawed policy. This leads to the question of whether the Province’s inaction and silence on this matter is because they are unaware of the situation or worse because they condone it. That is a question that should be asked of the Province.
Sven Miglin was on the Board of Directors of MAHC for six years (2007 – 2013), two of which he was the Chair. In 2015 he was appointed to the Huntsville Hospital Retention Committee. In 2016 the NSM LHIN appointed him to the Executive Committee of MAHST (Muskoka and Area Health System Transformation) project.
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My understanding, from the hospital web site, is that anyone who is a resident of our community can apply for an opening on the MAHC board. There is an application and interview process (just like applying for a paid job)
and the best men or women are chosen and officially elected at the AGM. So what is the problem?
Do you think that just anyone’s name should be “nominated from the floor” at an AGM, without being vetted in advance? It’s not as if there is a huge lineup of people rushing to join this hospital board. In fact, they are lucky to have anyone at all volunteer for this job now.
So how do we get the province involved?
I wondered why Miller has been so quiet for so long.
Please colour me confused. I have been a member of approximately a dozen boards (including Citizens With Disabilities – Ontario; The Mental Health and Addictions Board of Muskoka-Parry Sound; The Fairvern Nursing Home Board; among others).
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The Fairvern Nursing Home Board was the ONLY one to select new Directors at their AGM: The others all had nominating committees,who chose the most appropriate candidates from the public application process. These candidates were subsequently approved by the board, and served until the AGM, when they were generally (but not necessarily approved by the members.
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I understand your point about the nepotism involved in the extremely low membership who have voting rights at the AGM; but please do not extrapolate that too imply that absolutely EVERYTHING is completely different from every other existing board.
Very, very interesting.
Hope others are paying attention?
Does this explain the one hospital quest
when the residents want a 2 hospital system?