A review of hospital boards of management in rural Western Australia.

The primary aim of the study described in this paper was to review the place of hospital boards in the delivery of public sector health services in rural Western Australia. Specific issues explored included the demographic characteristics of country hospital boards, board roles and functions, and mechanisms for evaluating performance. While most board members and administrators perceived management control of boards to be about equally shared between them, over 90 per cent of board members felt they did not have sufficient skills to adequately discharge their board responsibilities.