Introduction
Healthcare is one of the pillars of the society. In fact, in a community where the people receive quality and affordable care, the population is productive and healthy. Notably, health care facilities are located all over the country, and there are different kinds of healthcare centers, depending on the needs of the community around and the specifications of the kind of services that need to be offered at the facility. Some hospitals deal with specific cases. For instance, one may find a hospital that only specializes in children's issues or heart complications. As a matter of fact, such hospitals handle all medical issues, but are known to have excellent services in specific medical fields (Berry & Bendapudi, 2007). Also, a hospital may be famous for having excellent research studies. On the other hand, some hospitals deal with general issues. Such facilities are found everywhere, unlike the most specialized ones, which may be more scarcely distributed. On the same note, some hospitals offer training services, and they are known as academic medical centers. Apart from providing health services, these facilities provide training to the students who study different health related professions, especially nurses and clinical officers. Such nurses are normally assisted even in their first few months of professional practice to enable them adapt to the job smoothly and easily (Roy et al., 2008). They are assigned supervisors among other more experienced senior staff at the facility. In this paper, the community hospitals and academic medical centers will be discussed. The preferred area of interest is in the state of Oregon.
Comparison of Community Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers
The two hospitals selected for this exercise are Rogue Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. In essence, the Rogue Regional Medical Center is a community hospital while the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center is an academic medical center.
Opinion on a Possible Merger
In the event of a merger between the two hospitals, there would be synergy because most of the operations in the two facilities are similar. However, the leadership structure would be a challenge. In essence, the command structure of Rogue Medical Center is more organized than that of Good Samaritan Medical Center. For instance, the formation of the board of directors may be parallel because, from the data collected, the board of Rogue Medical Center prefers retired and experienced professionals. The issue needs to be solved before the merger can happen to avoid possible wrangles within the leadership structures. The disputes may affect the operations of the hospitals and lower the quality standards of the facilities. The two leadership groups would need to agree on a plan that would suit both groups.
References
Berry, L. L., & Bendapudi, N. (2007). Health care a fertile field for service research. Journal of Service Research, 10(2), 111-122.
Roy, C. L., Liang, C. L., Lund, M., Boyd, C., Katz, J. T., McKean, S., & Schnipper, J. L. (2008). Implementation of a physician assistant/hospitalist service in an academic medical center: Impact on efficiency and patient outcomes. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 3(5), 361-368.
