The impact of economic challenges and the implementation of healthcare reform are pushing hospitals to position themselves towards a future that will require greater clinical integration, physician alignment and engagement, production efficiencies, and readiness for population health management. Considering a merger, partnership, or affiliation may be the only option to access scale and remain feasible (Bush, 2013; Grauman & Tam, 2012; Nakamura, …show more content…
As demonstrated, many mergers have failed because the human and cultural side of integration is not managed as carefully as the financial and structural side. Furthermore, most mergers fail because the human and operational side of the integration is ignored because the two merging organizations do not thoroughly plan how to build on and integrate their people and cultures, which must be dealt with methodically before the merger. Each organization has its own values and beliefs about how to succeed, yet, a level of understanding and cooperation, on both sides must be established to prevent an appearance of lack of collaboration (Butler, 2009; Bouchikhi & Kimberly, 2012; Walsh, 2015). Therefore, discussing the deal before any merger concludes, representatives from both organizations will need to discuss concerns of the potential merger. As previously mentioned, communication is key. Communicating strategies with the employees, stockholders, customers, and suppliers of both organizations are both necessary and vital. However, not every risk of a merger is from the internal factors; external factor play a big role as well: decline in the economy, or the invasion of a new player in a market. Nonetheless, the world of business moves fast these days, with rapid changes in technology,