HEALTHCARE QUESTIONS Please be detailed with your answer, and do not repeat the question in the your answer Describe how hospital access, utilization and capacity are measured?
HEALTHCARE QUESTIONS Please be detailed with your answer, and do not repeat
Expert Answer
Answer
Hospital access, utilization and capacity are key metrics to measure the performance of hospital operations. Below is how each of these are measured –
Hospital access can be measured based on the ease of access of the hospital facilities by the patients as below –
Accessibility = No. of hospitals in x sq-km of area/Total population in the area.
This measurement is solely based on the availability of hospitals. Accessibility involves other qualitative factors like availability of facilities to treat patients, affordability of patients to access care etc.
Hospital utilization is the percentage utilization of the facilities or beds in the hospital. Below is the metric –
Utilization (%) = (Number of beds occupied/Number of beds available)*100
This measurement helps in understanding whether the facilities of a hospital are properly utilized or additional accommodation needs to be provided if the number of patients is high compared to the number of beds.
Hospital capacity is the capacity in number of beds, doctors, equipment and other resources to provide quality care to the patients. Capacity is the number of beds and other facilities available.
