Developing the Case for Incremental Investment

The Problem

A health system in the Las Vegas market was planning for the future and wanted to understand, at a high level, whether they had enough treatment spaces to meet demand for specific services in two of their hospitals. Catalyst was commissioned to assess future demand and potential impacts to the hospital campuses for three services – emergency department, inpatient and surgery.

The Approach

Catalyst created a team with expertise in market assessment and architectural planning to develop volume growth projections for the three services, as well as key planning units required in the future – inpatient beds, ED beds, ORs. The team also compared the current state of the treatment space to industry standards. The assessment incorporated high level strategic initiatives related to these services and potential volume implications for each hospital.

The Solution

The conclusion of the study revealed that both hospitals did not have enough inpatient beds for expected future demand. Although the other departments did not have a need for more treatment spaces, Catalyst recommended operational improvements to improve throughput and maximize capacity in their EDs. Realizing that a top concern for many health system leaders in today’s healthcare environment is judicious use of capital dollars, the team facilitated a discussion with system and facility leaders about their strategic goals and the related implications for facility changes at each campus. This was particularly important since the two facilities were located within 30 minutes of each other and this hinted at opportunities for service rationalization and more effective allocation of scarce capital dollars.