title: Leadership in health care: developing a post-merger strategy for Europe's largest university hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper's aim is to identify existing and developing new concepts of organization, management, and leadership at a large European university hospital; and to evaluate whether mixed qualitative-quantitative methods with both internal and external input can provide helpful views of the possible future of large health care providers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Delphi method in semi-structured, semi-quantitative interviews, with managers and employees as experts, the authors performed a vertical and a horizontal internal analysis. In addition, input from innovative faculties in other countries was obtained through structured power questions. These two sources were used to create three final scenarios, which evaluated using traditional strategic planning methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is found a collaboration scenario in which faculty and hospital are separated; a split scenario which divides the organization into three independent hospitals; and a corporation scenario in which corporate activities are bundled in three separate entities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In complex mergers of knowledge-driven organizations, the employees of the own organization (in addition to external consultants) might be tapped as a knowledge resource to successful future business models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The paper uses a real world consulting case to present a new set of methods for strategic planning in large health care provider organizations.
authors.affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Geisler
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Widerberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berghöfer
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Willich
mesh_terms: D001604:Berlin; D003697:Delphi Technique; D006273:Health Facility Merger / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D010934:Planning Techniques