Manufacturing healthcare. Columbia/HCA strives toward common systems

Of any one organization in the healthcare industry, Columbia HCA/Healthcare Corp. has become a symbol for the mass-market commercialization of healthcare. Since its humble beginnings in 1987 as a two-hospital organization in El Paso, Texas, the cunning of its founder and CEO Richard Scott had catapulted the hospital chain start-up, through an aggressive strategy of mergers and acquisitions, to its current position as the nation's largest provider of healthcare services.