J|INSIGHTS - Unmet expectations: Quality & patient experience after a merger

Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper showing that hospital mergers don't do much to change several key metrics in quality and experience. And in the one place where the numbers do change - patient experience - they're worse. Under normal circumstances a paper showing little to no change in the key outcomes studied wouldn't get much attention. The problem here is that hospitals have long touted these metrics as reasons for a merger. It's more about the unfulfilled expectations - set by hospitals themselves - that made it a story. Here, our CEO, David Jarrard, explains what's going on and what healthcare leaders can do to make sure it doesn't happen in the future.