Merger Games: The Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, and the Rise and Fall of the Allegheny Healthcare System

Preface

temple university press philadelphia MerGer GaMes The Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, and the Rise and Fall of the Allegheny Health Care System Judith p. swazey With the research collaboration of Carla m. messikomer and the assistance of vicki leeman Hall and Judith C. Watkins To Beth and Woody, of whom I’m so very proud, and to their godmother, Renée C. Fox, for all she has meant for my work and to the Swazey family. temple university press philadelphia, pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2012 by temple university All rights reserved published 2012 library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data swazey, Judith p. merger games : the medical College of pennsylvania, Hahnemann university, and the rise and fall of the Allegheny Health Care system / Judith p. swazey ; with the research collaboration of Carla m. messikomer and the assistance of vicki leeman Hall and Judith C. Watkins. p. ; cm. includes bibliographical references and index. isBn 978-1-4399-0717-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — isBn 978-1-4399-0719-1 (e-book) 1. medical colleges—pennsylvania—History. 2. medical College of pennsylvania and Hahnemann university. 3. Hospital mergers—pennsylvania—History. i. title. [Dnlm: 1. medical College of pennsylvania and Hahnemann university. 2. schools, medical—history—pennsylvania. 3. Health Facility merger—history— pennsylvania. 4. History, 19th Century—pennsylvania. 5. History, 20th Century— pennsylvania. 6. History, 21st Century—pennsylvania. W 19] rA981.p4s93 2012 610.71′1748—dc23 2011015290 the paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American national standard for information sciences—permanence of paper for printed library materials, Ansi Z39.48-1992 printed in the united states of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Contents preface vii Acknowledgments xiii prologue. “Honoring the past, Creating the Future”: The Last Commencements of the HU and MCP Schools of Medicine and the First Commencement of the MCP&HU School of Medicine 1 Part I. Let the GaMes BeGIn 1 setting the stage: Hahnemann, mCp, and Allegheny 13 2 entering the merger Arena 28 3 if at First you Don’t succeed: the Acquisition of Hahnemann 51 4 “Our maximum leader”: sherif s. Abdelhak 74 Part II. MerGer LandsCaPes 5 Corporate, Higher education, and teaching-Hospital merger Arenas 101 6 merger patterns: Human and Organizational upheavals 112 vi / Contents Part III. MerGer GaMes 7 Who and What We Are: Creating an Organizational image and identity 129 8 Consolidation Calendar: tasks and timetables 146 9 “merger Guinea pigs”: the medical students 154 10 upsizings: institutional expansions 173 11 And Downsizings: institutional Contractions 191 Part IV. end GaMes 12 AHerF, AHerF sat on a Wall, AHerF, AHerF Had a Great Fall (with Apologies to Humpty Dumpty) 209 13 saving the university 232 14 no One Could put AHerF together Again 252 15 end Games: 2002–2003 272 Appendix. the players: people and Organizations 283 references 287 index 303 Preface t he major portion of this research-based account is set in the years 1993–1998. the bare outline of the story is as follows: During that time, a nonprofit health care corporation based in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, the Allegheny Health, education and research Foundation (AHerF, or Allegheny), acquired Hahnemann university (Hu) of the Health sciences in philadelphia and merged it with the medical College of pennsylvania (mCp), which Allegheny had acquired in 1987. in addition to building up the merged health sciences university— initially named mCp Hahnemann school of medicine, renamed Allegheny university of the Health sciences (AuHs), and then renamed mCp Hahnemann university, or mCp-Hu—AHerF also vastly expanded its holdings in eastern and western pennsylvania, developing an extensive network of hospitals and primary-care and specialty practice groups. the original focus of the study was on the content and dynamics of the efforts to consolidate the Hu and mCp schools of medicine, and that remained a major objective of our research. the study, however, took on an additional, initially unforeseen, and dramatic dimension Ethnography becomes history1 1. this is a comment made by the noted sociologist paul lazarsfeld, founder of Columbia university’s Bureau of Applied social research, to renée Fox in the 1950s during a discussion about the field research that she was conducting in connection with the bureau’s study of the socialization of medical students (merton, reader, and Kendall 1957). ...