Hospital mergers: a panacea?

Hospital mergers in Europe and North America have been launched to scale down expenditure, enhance the delivery of health care and elevate quality. However, the outcome of mergers suggest that they neither generated cost savings nor improved the quality of care. Almost all consolidations fall short, since those in leadership positions lack the necessary understanding and appreciation of the differences in culture, values and goals of the existing facilities. In spite of these shortcomings, hospital mergers will continue to be pursued in order to improve market share, eliminate excess capacity, gain access to capital and enhance the personal egos of the organizations' leaders.