Increased Consolidation Raises Concerns

Publication Date: January 2000

Publisher: Center for Studying Health System Change

Author(s): Jon B. Christianson; Cara S. Lesser; Laurie E. Felland; Suzanne Felt-Lisk

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Coverage: Ohio

Abstract:

In June 2000, a team of researchers visited Cleveland, Ohio, to study that community’s health system, how it is changing and the effects of those changes on consumers. The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), as part of the Community Tracking Study, interviewed more than 85 leaders in the health care market. Cleveland is one of 12 communities tracked by HSC every two years through site visits and surveys. Individual community reports are published for each round of site visits. The first two site visits to Cleveland, in 1996 and 1998, provided baseline and initial trend information against which changes are tracked. The Cleveland market includes the city of Cleveland and its suburbs. Over the past two years, Cleveland witnessed the departure of two for-profit hospital chains that had been in the area since 1994, leading to significant organizational change. Two inner-city hospitals were closed, and, through a series of recent acquisitions, the Cleveland Clinic Health System (CCHS) and the University Hospitals Health System (UHHS), two local, not-for-profit hospital systems, have strengthened their dominance in the Cleveland market.