Why Hospital Mergers May Not Work

Old myths die hard, and for years as hospitals continue to join forces in the name of efficiency, the refrain cited most often by individuals who steward their systems has not changed: “do the deal and everybody wins.”

Intuitively, when a facility joins a network or bigger hospital, one would expect administrative and clinical redundancy to lessen. As a result, a system will pass through found savings to payers and offer higher quality—as the organization sorts the clinical wheat from chaff.

This belief has become so ingrained in our collective psyche, from the hospital chief executive officer on down, to decry otherwise would be heretical.

Read more at the blog of the Society of Hospital Medicine: http://bit.ly/1K4aSFI