The Healthcare Forum, AHA Publishing and DataSubsidiaries Merge to Create New Organization.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 1, 1998--The Healthcare Forum (THF), a nationally recognized health care leadership development and education association, will join together with the American Hospital Association's (AHA) publishing and data subsidiaries, organization officials announced today.

The enterprise will offer health care leaders access to new information and fresh ideas which they can immediately use to strengthen their organization's clinical and business performance. The new entity's educational programs, publications and interactive technologies also will enable health care leaders to improve the health and well-being of the communities they serve.

Under the agreement, American Hospital Publishing, Inc., the publishing subsidiary of AHA, and Healthcare infoSource, AHA's data and information subsidiary, will unite with The Healthcare Forum to create the new organization.

"The best way to improve patient careis to start at the local level -- one community at a time," said AHA President Dick Davidson. "This union will produce the indispensable tools health care leaders must have at their fingertips to succeed on behalf of their patients, communities and organizations."

Kathryn E. Johnson, president and chief executive officer of The Healthcare Forum, will serve as the new president and CEO of Health infoSource. She will also serve as executive publisher of the organization. Jonathan T. Lord, M.D., chief operating officer of AHA, will serve as chairman of the board of the new organization. Health infoSource, which will be headquartered in San Francisco, will operate as a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of the not-for-profit AHA.

All operations of The Healthcare Forum -- except The Healthcare Forum Foundation -- will be incorporated into the new enterprise. The Healthcare Forum Foundation will continue to operate as a separate, not-for-profit organization with its own board of directors, under an affiliation agreement with the new company. K. James Ehlen, M.D., president of Allina Health System in Minnesota and current chair of The Healthcare Forum Board of Directors, will serve as chair of the Foundation board.

"When AHA approached The Healthcare Forum's Board of Directors about a strategic partnership, we believed it would complement our values-based leadership work," said Dr. Ehlen. "This is a great match of two synergistic organizations -- and the beneficiaries will be not only health care leaders, but the patients and communities we all serve."

"In linking with AHA's leading-edge publishing and data and information subsidiaries, we have a unique opportunity to create an entirely new enterprise of greater scale and deeper competencies," said Johnson. "AHA's superior market intelligence products, clinical quality expertise and extraordinary data repository will strengthen the Forum's future-oriented approach to health care leadership development."

Lord added, "When the AHA wanted to strengthen its ability to provide real-time solutions to the critical challenges our members face, there simply was no better partner than The Healthcare Forum. Health infoSource will bring an extraordinary spirit of creativity and savvy to today's complicated health care environment."

One example of the type of products that the new organization will offer is called Outcomes - The Results Oriented System for Community Improvement(SM). This new CD-ROM and Internet-based planning and evaluation tool assists health care executives and community leaders in measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of their community improvement initiatives. Outcomes' advanced technology enables multiple users -- either within the same organization or different ones -- to co-design, plan, execute and monitor community improvement initiatives.

The Healthcare Forum, founded in 1927 as the Association of Western Hospitals, is a nationally recognized resource for health care leadership development, education and applied research. The Forum engages leaders in building new visions and models of care for individual, organizational and community health. For more information, visit The Healthcare Forum's website at www.thfnet.org.

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations that are committed to health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks and other providers of care. Founded in 1898, AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA Web site at www.aha.org.

    CONTACT:  The Healthcare Forum
               Jan Emerson, 415/356-4392
                        or
               American Hospital Association
               Alicia Mitchell, 202/626-2339