Henry Ford Health System: An integrated health care system's attempt to create a unified formulary

In an attempt to bring its diverse components together and to bring consistency to a disparate integrated delivery system, Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), which is located in the Detroit area, set out to develop a system-wide unified formulary. Although the visionaries behind this effort ran into difficulties and, ultimately, were unable to successfully accomplish this goal, the knowledge they gained provided a basis for establishing new more achievable targets. One recent missions of HFHS has been to develop two separate formularies-an ambulatory formulary and an inpatient formulary. Through these changes, the formulary committees are hoping to bring more consistency to this sprawling comprehensive health care system.