Clinical integration across multiple hospitals: the agony, the ecstasy.

The author shares one system's experience with the clinical integration of multiple facilities over several years. This inside view relates the good, the bad, and the ugly; the difficulties and the successes; and the agonies and the ecstasies. The author arrives at the conclusion that all the pain and anguish are worth the rewards of an integrated system that is well positioned in the marketplace to meet the mission and vision of a community health care system committed to thriving in the 21st century.