Stephen Gelineau and Graham Brown look at how to ensure  that a merger of hospital systems doesn’t fail. They provide vivid real-life examples: Henry Ford Health System and Beaumont Health System, and Sanford Health and Fairview Health.

As they note: “Many boards and executive teams have pursued an affiliation and undertaken the exhaustive due diligence process requisite in a merger, only to find that ‘softer’ issues — cultural alignment, board members’ compatibility and preferred business styles, physician willingness to combine clinically, or a lack of shared vision for the future — cause their newfound partnership to collapse. ”

Here are some of the specific challenges they address:

”Blending governing boards.

”Joining the clinical engines.

”Developing a shared vision.”