Hospital System Acquisition of Physician Practices

What are hospital leaders’ and physicians’ perspectives on hospital acquisitions of physician practices regarding the motivation for, impact of, and operational challenges resulting from acquisitions?In this qualitative study, interviews were conducted with 37 hospital leaders and physicians who have had experience with practice acquisitions. All interviewees reported that most practice acquisitions were physician initiated because of independent practice challenges and also agreed that practice acquisitions improved patient care, but the 2 groups differed regarding key operational challenges.These findings suggest that physician practice acquisitions hold promise for improving patient care if various operational challenges of integrating acquired practices can be resolved.

Corresponding Author: Gary J. Young, JD, PhD, Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Research, Northeastern University, 137 Richards Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (ga.young@northeastern.edu).

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