Background
The hospital is located in San Diego. It was born from a donation of $500,000 from Thomas E. Sharp, a successful businessman in San Diego and the father to Donald N. Sharp in 1950. Donald was an army pilot with the B-26 marauders of the United States Army (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . He gave his life for his country on 23rd December 1944 in Bonn, Germany during a mission by his troupe at the age of 22. His father, Thomas, wanted to honor his son's sacrifice. In 1950, he donated the money to the newly formed San Diego Hospital Association, following a commitment that the hospital will be constructed and named Donald N. Sharp Memorial Community Hospital (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . The commitment also stated that the hospital would be dedicated to all servicemen who sacrificed their lives in battle for their country (VA San Diego Healthcare System resource guide, 2016) . Thomas’ donation together with other 11,300 individual contributions led to the opening of the hospital as a 200-bed hospital in the year 1955 (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) .
Since it was founded, Sharp healthcare has expanded extensively to serve the whole of San Diego County with four acute care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, and three affiliated medical groups and developed a quality health plan (Healthcare Inspection, 2014) . The hospital has honored its lineage by ensuring that the hospital is the best place work, practice medicine and receive medical care in San Diego. It serves the best interests of San Diego County (Healthcare Inspection, 2014) .
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The hospital was designed as a not for profit hospital. It has continued to be not for profit which means that once the bills associated to the hospital, including payment of the employees, are settled, the rest of the funds are directed towards ensuring that the clients receive the best possible healthcare possible for its patients (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . The hospital continues to invest in technology and services to keep the community healthy. The hospital's commitment includes the provision of the much-needed health care services to the underinsured and the uninsured members of the community (Healthcare Inspection, 2014) . This sometimes means foregoing reimbursement for services offered to these groups.
Major Changes in Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center
One of the major changes that have occurred in the hospital is the increase in the number of hospitals affiliated to Sharp Memorial Hospital. From what began as one community hospital, the number has grown into seven hospitals in the Sharp network, several urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities and affiliated medical groups and physician offices (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . The hospital’s workforce has risen to 18,000 employees currently, of whom 4,000 are qualified physicians who support the vast number of facilities within the hospital’s network (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . This has been influenced by the increasing demand for the hospital's services across San Diego and has been able to satisfy the growing demands.
Another major change that has occurred in the hospital is the extensive coverage of medical services to the community in San Diego County. The hospital was designed to serve members of the armed forces in the armed forces (VA San Diego Healthcare System resource guide, 2016) . This has changed since then, and the hospital now provides medical services to different groups of individuals, covering most of the medical conditions in San Diego. Since its first heart transplant n 1985, the hospital has been able to carry out heart transplants to more than 400 people (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . The reason for changing the initial plan of serving the servicemen only resulted from the desire to serve the whole community in San Diego. This helps the community to embrace the hospital more. Also, the community, more often, had to travel to other counties to seek medical attention. Sharp, helped to reduce the community’s suffering by bringing these services closer to them. An example is the usage of the new da Vinci Robotic Surgical System in the US. Sharp was the first hospital to employ this system.
Integration
Sharp employs horizontal integration. This involves collaborating with other organizations in the county to meet the needs of the communities. It has helped the organization to reach most of the San Diegans with their services, through collaborative activities that make it possible for the employees to give back to the community.
The Future
Sharp Medical Center has formulated a plan to present its future. It is currently in the process of constructing what it has named a next-generation hospital in the region (“Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors-Sharp HealthCare”, 2018) . This hospital will combine clinical excellence with thoughtful consideration in providing the best level of medical care to the community.
References
Top San Diego Hospitals and Doctors - Sharp HealthCare. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sharp.com/
VA San Diego Healthcare System. (2016). VA San Diego Healthcare System resource guide . San Diego, CA: VA San Diego Healthcare System.
United States. (2014). Healthcare inspection: Emergency department staffing and patient safety issues VA San Diego Healthcare System San Diego, California
