5 Questions Every Hospital Board Should Ask

By Dr. Vernette Grant, DBA, MHA — creator of the PPTO Framework (People–Process–Technology–Operations).

Your board is making AI decisions. Are they asking the right questions?

Why It Matters

AI is already inside your hospital. Clinical decision support, predictive analytics, revenue cycle automation, imaging diagnostics. Most of these tools were adopted without a governance framework to evaluate them. That means your board is carrying risk it hasn't measured, approving investments it can't fully assess, and trusting systems no one has been formally tasked with overseeing. The cost of ungoverned AI isn't theoretical. It's biased clinical recommendations, regulatory exposure, and eroded patient trust.

Now Is the Time

Federal and state AI regulations are accelerating. CMS, ONC, and the White House Executive Order on AI are creating new compliance expectations. Health systems that wait for final rules before building governance will be years behind. The institutions that act now will shape the standards. The ones that wait will scramble to meet them. Your next board meeting is the right moment to start.

This free one-pager gives board members, executives, and governance committees the 5 critical questions they should be asking right now, drawn directly from Dr. Vernette Grant's peer-reviewed PPTO Framework.

Each question maps to a PPTO pillar and includes:

• Why it matters — the governance risk if this question goes unasked

• What a strong answer looks like — concrete benchmarks so your board knows the difference between a real answer and a vague one

Designed for:

• Hospital and health system board members

• C-suite executives evaluating AI investments

• Governance committees building oversight structures

• Researchers studying AI accountability in healthcare

Based on the PPTO Framework published in the Open Journal of Business and Management (Grant, V. and Levasseur, R., 2026) and the book Ethical AI in Healthcare: A PPTO Governance Playbook for Hospital and Health System Leaders (2026).

Print it. Bring it to your next board meeting. Share it with your CEO.