Healthcare mergers: Success often depends on leadership integration

As healthcare merger-mania continues, hospitals and systems that are coming together must unite at all levels--starting with the board room and C-suite.

Each party in the merger brings its own C-suite members and leadership, and uniting those teams can be a challenge, Jeff Jones, managing director at Huron Consulting Group, writes in an article for Hospitals & Health Networks.

To ensure a smooth transition, Jones advises organizations to clearly establish roles early on in the process. For example, leaders must define and split up the responsibilities of the  board of trustees and the fiduciary and governing boards to avoid duplication.

One mistake healthcare systems make is including members from each of the local hospital boards in the new board, he writes.

“The system board needs to explicitly show that it is implementing a rigorous review of its own functions and that it is moving toward recruiting members with the skills and capabilities necessary to meet the current and future needs of the organization,” he writes in H&HN. “And if it doesn't, the board is signaling that it doesn't expect similar self-assessment from others in the organization.”