Self-sufficiency in a regional hospital system

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Services Research
• Regional Planning

Background:

• Hospital systems often exhibit varying degrees of regionalization, impacting resource allocation and patient access.
• Understanding regional independence is crucial for effective healthcare system planning and management.
• Interregional patient flows are a key indicator of how healthcare services are utilized across different geographic areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and define quantitative measures for assessing the degree of regionalization within hospital systems.
• To characterize regional independence using a novel "self-sufficiency" index.
• To demonstrate the application of these measures using real-world data from the Nova Scotia hospital system.

Main Methods:

• Development of a "self-sufficiency" index based on interregional patient flows.
• Analysis of healthcare facility utilization patterns by residents across different regions.
• Application of the index to the specific context of the Nova Scotia hospital system.

Main Results:

• The "self-sufficiency" index effectively quantifies the degree of regionalization in a hospital system.
• Analysis revealed specific patterns of interregional healthcare service utilization in Nova Scotia.
• The proposed measures provide a data-driven approach to understanding regional healthcare dependencies.

Conclusions:

• The "self-sufficiency" index is a valuable tool for evaluating regional independence in hospital systems.
• Understanding interregional flows is essential for optimizing healthcare resource distribution and strategic planning.
• The findings offer insights for policy-making aimed at improving healthcare accessibility and efficiency.