Merger mania: Louisville hospitals part of U.S. surge

More and more hospitals are reaching the same conclusion these days — bigger is better. The planned consolidation of three Kentucky hospital systems is part of a nationwide surge in mergers driven by health-care reform, the poor economy and potential cost savings, according to experts. "The small, community hospital is soon to go the way of the dinosaurs," said Angela Mattie, associate professor of health-care management at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University. "This is definitely the wave of the future."