Maximizing Inpatient Beds with Strategic Growth

The Problem

The small specialty hospital was originally designed and built to support an initial patient volume and had the capability to expand horizontally, adding bed capacity. The diagnostic and treatment services as well as the ancillary services were already designed for the larger bed capacity. The physicians, with ownership in the facility, had ambitious goals to take market share and expand their service area, capturing new volume, but didn’t understand how that volume would translate into bed need or have realistic expectations for what could realistically be captured. With the physician team believing a replacement hospital was necessary, to the tune of tens of millions, leadership needed Catalyst to determine if it was even feasible.

The Approach

Catalyst’s planning team studied the zoning ordinances of the site to understand how it would limit the expansion abilities of the facility and created test fits of the expansion and necessary renovations to meet the strategy goals and to support patient capacity. Finally with a total bed capacity of the site and facility, Catalyst calculated the market share and volume that the physicians would have to reach in order to fill the beds.

The Solution

Ultimately Catalyst’s discoveries set realistic expectations for strategic growth and allowed hospital leadership to plan strategic moves annually to reach established targets. Financially, Catalyst proved that the current physical asset met the needs of the physicians and eliminated the desire and cost (in tens of millions) to construct a replacement facility.