Outpatient planning: still more art than science?

A general lack of comprehensive data on ambulatory care isn't preventing hospitals from engaging in high-quality planning in that area. "A good forecast" for future ambulatory care demand depends mainly on a "thoughtful determination of what needs to be forecasted and why," says Andrew McCulloch, chief operating officer at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle. The rapid pace of outpatient development has led some hospitals to invest a great deal of time and money to develop improved information systems. Those hospitals are heeding the statistical trends: Outpatient revenue grew far faster than inpatient did in 1990.