“No Matter How Hard We Try with Good Conscience…” Hospitals Closing Down: A Third

The "limits of conscientious management" revealed by a third-generation hospital director in a downtown area highlights the reality that the current medical fee system and soaring prices are fundamentally destroying the traditional management model of community-based hospitals.This is not merely a deterioration of financial performance, but a crisis where the dysfunction of community infrastructure is imminent.This sense of crisis is a pressing issue shared by many private hospital managers.

In the context of medical M&A and business succession, this news compels a redefinition of "exit strategies." While transferring ownership to external capital may be met with resistance by the third-generation, who have traditionally assumed intra-family succession, aparadigm shift that prioritizes "preserving regional healthcare" over "protecting the family business"is necessary. Joining a larger medical group or similar organization while the hospital still has financial strength can be the most realistic and ethical management decision to maintain staff employment and rescue the elderly who would otherwise lose their place.

In this era, the aesthetic of "persevering independently until the very end" can inadvertently trigger the collapse of regional healthcare. Managers facing succession issues should reconsider M&A not as a way to "close" their hospital's history, but as an option to "revitalize" it within a new organization, and should consider it as an early option.