A taxonomic analysis of multihospital systems

Research to date on multihospital systems has proved largely uninformative, in part because similarities and differences among these organizations have not been addressed systematically. Through numeric classification, this article identifies populations of multihospital systems that share similar organizational attributes. Drawing on McKelvey's classification theory, 16 organizational characteristics of 160 multihospital systems are analyzed using a series of taxonomic techniques, including cluster analysis, multiple discriminant analysis, and analysis of coefficients of variation. Fifteen distinct subgroups of systems are identified and described, and their implications for organization research discussed.