A Hospital Operator's Manual for Post-merger Integration
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Hospitals and health systems have been merging with each other, acquiring each other and strategically partnering with each other for decades. These deals offer the potential to improve quality, efficiency and more.
But the post-merger process often can be complex as crafting the merger agreement itself. What’s needed is a detailed plan — an operator’s manual, if you will — to execute the integration of two organizations. Follow this 10-step process to develop an operator’s manual to ensure a successful post-merger transition.
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Post-merger Integration Assembly Instructions
Building an integrated hospital or health system after a merger can be complicated because hospitals and health systems are some of the most complicated and sophisticated organizations. Yet the general steps taken to successfully integrate hospitals and health systems are strikingly similar to the steps and concepts required to build a shelving unit, for example.
Case Study: Henry Ford Health and Ascension Michigan
Putting a Premium on Change Management and Cultural Integration
In October 2023, Henry Ford Health and Ascension Michigan agreed to transfer majority ownership of eight Ascension Michigan hospitals to Henry Ford Health through a joint venture. The parties completed the deal in fall 2024, making Henry Ford Health a 13-hospital system. Key to the successful integration of the two organizations has been the creation of a physician advisory council and a cultural integration team to ensure that physicians and valued team members closest to the care team are on the same page from both change-management and cultural-integration perspectives.
Case Study: USA Health
Operating Model First, Technology Second
In April 2023, USA Health acquired Providence Hospital. The transaction brought the hospital and 14 clinics into USA Health, which operates University Hospital and Children’s and Women’s Hospital, and the Mitchell Cancer Institute. The integration focused on developing a common mission, vision and culture. In their post-integration operating model, the two organizations determined that tech infrastructure along with the details of how the two organizations would combine into one should support the operating model.
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