Capacity management in acute hospitals has been a poorly understood area for many years. HCAF have been researching the statistical signatures behind variation in demand for over ten years and have used the outcomes of this research to provide simple capacity management tools to enable guaranteed waiting time targets to be achieved and maintained.

The capacity management tool gives upper and lower control limits for both activity and numbers of patients waiting to be seen. This prevents managers from over-reacting to statistically insignificant changes but allows them to react appropriately when active intervention is required.

Since almost all conditions respond to the surrounding environment the correct allocation of outpatient and inpatient resources also needs to reflect this seasonal variation and it is at this point that the operational implications of the statistical signatures behind demand become exceedingly important to understand.

Refer to the 'Emergency Admissions' folder for more details regarding the long term trends in emergency admissions. The 'Hospital Beds' folder discusses issues specific to bed numbers. The 'Financial Risk' folder gives more detail of the link between operational risk & capacity.

Capacity Management Series

BJHCM = British Journal of Healthcare Management

HSJ = Health Service Journal

Jones R 1996 Estimation of annual activity and the use of activity multipliers. Health Informatics 2, 71-77

Jones R 2000 Feeling a bit peaky (seasonality). HSJ 110(5732), 28-31  

Jones R 2001 A pretty little sum (waiting times). HSJ 111(5740), 28-31

Jones R 2001 Quick, quick, slow (waiting times). HSJ 111(5778), 20-4 

Jones R 2009 What next for eighteen weeks? BJHCM 15(8), 404-5

Jones R 2009 How to maintain eighteen weeks. BJHCM 15(9), 456-457

Jones R 2009 Building smaller hospitals. BJHCM 15(10), 511-512

Jones R 2009 Crafting efficient bed pools. BJHCM 15(12), 614-616