“Paul Levy: Taking Charge of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center”
April 26, 2015
Jose Joe Rodriguez
HSM 500 Management & Organizational Theory & Practice
Situation
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, located in the heart of Boston's academic medical area, is a 513-bed hospital noted for its high-class academic medical center that was known not only for the quality of its research and teaching, but especially for its quality of care. The flux of hospital mergers in its area in an already competitive market place, forced Beth Israel hospital to also find partners in order to compete. As a result, BI merged with Deaconess Hospital along with a few others in order to create The Care Group System. While the concept was to team up and create a profitable , efficient and great care environment, the merger only created a spiraled downfall in operations and care resulting in substantial loss of money. It turned into a disastrous merger.
Questions
1. Why did BI merge with Deaconess, despite knowing financial and philosophical differences would be an impossible challenge?
2. In such a large merger, why was clinical operations much more important to lead and process with than financial integration?
3. Why despite all the changes, was there no buy in for change?
Hypothesis
Problem Statement: Cost pressures stemming from a recent financial crisis and local competition drive the hospital's efforts to improve efficiency. At the heart of these issues, new President of the Hospital Paul Levy faces daunting challenges in changing a culture of bad financial decisions, poor culture, and a system that has too many decision makers not making decisions.
Hypothesis: By maintaining his focus on changing culture and really instituting change; Paul Levy can help turn around Beth Israel Medical Center Hospitals. Organizational factors, internal processes, and practical tools were developed to make changes but never executed,