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Ucsf Stanford Healthcare – Why They Merged and Why the Merger Was Unsuccessful

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In 1997 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) merged its two public hospitals with Stanford’s two private hospitals. The two separate entities merged together to create a not-for-profit organization titled UCSF Stanford Health Care. The merger between the health systems at UCSF and Stanford seemed like a good idea due to the similar missions, proximity of institutions, increased financial pressure with cutbacks in Medicare reimbursements followed by a dramatic increase in managed care organizations. The first year UCSF Stanford Health Care produced a profit of $22 million, however three years later the health system had lost a total of $176 million (“UCSF-Stanford Merger,” n.d.). The first part of this paper will address reasons …show more content…

On paper, the merger between these two institutions made sense – both institutions were close to one another and competing for diminishing resources. Together they could reduce administrative costs and join forces to negotiate with large insurance companies. The need to create a new culture and dissolve historically existent power struggles were two large tasks that needed to be addressed in order to ensure a successful merger. However, the way in which the merger was organized did not lead to a successful merger. UCSF Health Care did not spend adequate time creating a shared culture in which the two organizations would see one joint organization with shared power (resources). On paper both organizations agreed to share power, however both parties behavior showed otherwise. Dr.Rizk Norman, co-chair of the combined physician group of UCSF and Stanford faculty, attests that neither institution was ever comfortable enough to share financial information(“UCSF, Stanford hospitals just too different,” n.d.). UCSF did not fully disclose their fiscal concerns regarding one of their sinking hospitals, while Stanford was also guilty of withholding information (“UCSF, Stanford hospitals just too different,” n.d.). Merging into one should eliminate the sense of two separate entities, however not enough was done to shape the merger in such

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