Hospital acquisitions and federal healthcare reform legislation, 2010-2012

¶ … healthcare sector has experienced a rise in consolidation. However, since the year 2010, the industry has perceived a significant increase in the number of hospital acquisitions, with recommendations being made that this is to some extent owing to the anticipated influence of federal healthcare reform legislation. The purpose for the article is to examine the acquisitions of acute care and community hospitals between the period of January 2010 and March 2012 (Mccue et al., 2015).

How research was conducted

The research was conducted through a sampling process. The authors ascertained American acute care, community hospitals that were acquired between the aforementioned periods. In particular, the research's emphasis was solely on short-term acute care facilities. Data for such acquisitions was obtained from Modern Healthcare. Thereafter, operational and financial data was collected from Medicare Hospital Cost Report Information System and the mean values for every hospital computed. In addition, the authors collected managed care penetration data and market measures. Subsequent to this, the authors used t-tests and chi-square tests to make comparison of the features of acquired hospitals contrast to those of non-acquired hospitals in the course of the research period (Mccue et al., 2015).

How the article relates to what you are learning in this unit

The article relates to what I am learning in this unit in the sense that it encompasses mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, and what healthcare reforms have an implication to such alliances.

The meaning or implications of the article's contents, as well as any flaws you find in the article

The implications of the contents of the articles are that hospital acquisitions bring about newer and fresher equipment that facilitate the establishment to apportion resources in dissimilar ways to support investments in infrastructure and be in a fitting position for reform in healthcare. Some of the flaws detected included inadequate data sample to properly examine acquisition within particular states. The article therefore employed dummy and control variables. Another flaw detected is incapability of generalizing data results to the acquisition of smaller critical-access hospitals and specialty hospitals (Mccue et al., 2015).

What could have made the article better?

The article could have been made better with the inclusion of graphs and depictions. This would have made it much easier to understand the data analysis and interpretation.

Was any information left out?

The information that was left out included data from different states. This had a limiting impact on the research study.

Could the author expand on the results?

The author could expand on the results through the inclusion of data from different states and also the inclusion of the analysis on the acquisition of other healthcare facilities.

The relation of the article to your professional or personal life

The relation of the article to my professional life lies in healthcare reform and how that influences acquisitions. In addition, in the merger and acquisitions, this influences my professional life by having to deal with a new organization as a whole, with new peers and positions to fill. The healthcare facility will without doubt have to restructure and reorganize subsequent to acquisition (Bogue et al., 1995).