Only 4 percent of hospital and health system boards have members with direct technology experience relevant to healthcare technology, a second quarter 2019 Black Book survey found.
Black Book asked 494 hospital executives if members of their boards were tech savvy in several specific areas.
Here's what they found:
1. Of the respondents, 91 percent of hospital boards said they rely on consultants for IT strategy and advisement rather than healthcare technology expertise of trustees.
2. Seventy-nine percent believe they receive too little data and feedback on technology challenges their health system is facing.
3. Just5 percent of boards have a dedicated technology committee.
4. Around 80 percent of CFOs and senior financial leaders said their board members were not impartial in vendor selection processes. They revealed they had approved spending that was influenced by another board member, corporate management or vendor sales executive.
5. When it comes to disruptive technologies, 76 percent of board members said their hospital could not identify new technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning or patient privacy monitoring, to understand the risk-benefit equation of their spending choices.