Economies of scale between competitors
Four Washington health-care providers were facing a problem. Harrison Medical Center (Bremerton), Advanced Medical Imaging (Silverdale), The Doctors Clinic (Silverdale), and Olympic Radiology (Bremerton), all separate, multisite organizations located on the Kitsap Peninsula, west of Seattle, knew that having competitors was creating problems for patients. For instance, it was not uncommon for a patient to be imaged at another facility before being admitted to Harrison Medical Center’s emergency department, but there was often no way to access that patient’s prior studies, even if the on-call physician knew which facility held them.
