Strategic hospital planning for university medical centers by use of population and disease rate adjusted calculation of expected patient volume

Presenter: Dr. Daniel Matthias Duerr, University Hospital of Tuebingen

Abstract

"Strategic hospital planning for University Medical Centers by use of population and disease rate adjusted calculation of expected patient volume. Definition of time-dependent catchment areas between hospitals and combined visualization with further management information by use of geographic information systems"

Rationale:
Increasing competition between hospitals requires a new and innovative approach for economic hospital management. How many people will need hospital treatment, where do they live and what time do they need to reach the next hospital? These are important questions for strategic hospital planning and management.

Objectives:
The objective is to apply a new calculation method of the expected amount of people who need hospital treatment. Secondly, with a network analysis based definition of catchment areas we create a powerful tool for strategic hospital management.

Methodology:
(1) Calculation method: In order to calculate the expected amount of patients requiring hospital treatment we used the rate for each ICD-Code (International Classification of Disease Code) and age cluster of the latest year. In combination with the current demographic data of each district we summed up an age and disease adjusted amount of patients per postal district. In addition market shares of an university hospital were calculated and visualized.
(2) Catchment areas: In order to define catchment areas we used network-based spatial analysis for major hospitals.
(3) Visualization method: The calculated amount of patients for each postal district is shown on a strategic map after geocoding the postal districts.
Finally all retrieved data were visualized on a map with additional management information, such as administration type and performance over the last 2 years for each hospital.

Results:
We showed how many patients can be expected with regard to any ICD-Code for every postal district. In addition calculated catchment areas for major hospitals were identified. The potential of patients who need hospital treatment for each hospital could be described. All results are shown on the strategic planning map and provide a unique combination of relevant market and site information for hospital management.

Conclusions:
In combination with the current exploitation hospital market shares could easily be calculated and visualized on the map. The highly intensified combination of relevant market and site information for hospitals showed to be a powerful tool for supporting decisions in hospital management.