title: Strategies for more efficient performance through hospital merger.
abstract: This article compares the operating performance of merged and non-merged local hospitals during the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period not unlike that being experienced in hospitals today. A matched case-control design is employed to create "synthetically" merged hospitals--to represent them as if they had effected a merger--and compares their performance to a group of similar hospitals that did merge.
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Management, Des Moines University, Osteopathic Medical Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sinay
authors.forename: Claudia R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000573:American Hospital Association; D001509:Bed Occupancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital / Q000379:methods; D006273:Health Facility Merger / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006752:Hospital Planning / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010934:Planning Techniques; D014481:United States