Landscape of Health Systems in the United States

Overview

Journal Med Care Res Rev

Specialty Health Services

Date 2019 Jan 25

PMID 30674227

Citations 28

Authors

Michael F Furukawa

Rachel M Machta

Kirsten A Barrett

David J Jones

Stephen M Shortell

Dennis P Scanlon

Valerie A Lewis

A James OMalley

Ellen R Meara

Eugene C Rich

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of vertical integration, data and research focused on identifying and describing health systems are sparse. Until recently, we lacked an enumeration of health systems and an understanding of how systems vary by key structural attributes. To fill this gap, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality developed the Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, a data resource to support research on comparative health system performance. In this article, we describe the methods used to create the Compendium and present a picture of vertical integration in the United States. We identified 626 health systems in 2016, which accounted for 70% of nonfederal general acute care hospitals. These systems varied by key structural attributes, including size, ownership, and geographic presence. The Compendium can be used to study the characteristics of the U.S. health care system and address policy issues related to provider organizations.

Citing Articles

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