Mergers and acquisitions impact facility management

As if there weren’t enough to tackle with keeping day-to-day operations and the supporting infrastructure in top working order, things can get even more challenging, as they say, if there is a merger or acquisition in your present or future.

The rate of health care mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has increased significantly, with 95 or more hospital transactions occurring in the United States each year from 2012 through 2014, according to an analysis by Kaufman, Hall & Associates and as reported in this month’s issue of Infrastructure News.

The Health Facilities Management/American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE)/Association for the Healthcare Environment Salary Survey in the July issue of HFM magazine found that nearly one-third of respondents work at a facility that has been involved in M&A activity over the past three years.

Not had that experience yet? Facility managers need to be be prepared for the possibility and to be change leaders in their organizations if and when it does happen, advises Leo M. Gehring, CHFM, CHC, FASHE, 2007 president of ASHE and a consultant based in Little Rock, Ark.

Facility directors who are best positioned best to succeed when facing the complexities inherent with M&A have a record of embracing and facilitating change, efficiency, financial responsibility, and patient safety and satisfaction in their organizations, Gehring says.

That means the boiler house mentality of yesteryear is not going to cut it any more, he adds. Instead, those with the knowledge of or capacity to understand how the modern health care industry works and how M&A stands to impact their specific health care system or facility, have the best chance of making the change as seamless as possible.

Our report in this newsletter will provide you with some guidance in making an upcoming or possible M&A a winning venture for all concerned, including you and your facility team.  

On another note, make sure you check out some recent changes to the Health Facilities Management website. We added a daily blog called HFM Today to the website that provides coverage of industry events, health care facility design and construction projects, and news about codes and standards.

Other additions and improvements include a new interactive graphic with industry data, updated “Editors’s Picks,” “Popular Articles,” “Web Exclusive” features, job listings from the American Hospital Association’s Health Career Center and more.

Go to www.hfmmagazinecom and tell us what you think.