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Modelling the redistribution of hospital supply to achieve equity taking account of patient's behaviour

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Abstract

Policies that seek to achieve geographic equity in countries with a National Health Services (NHS) require information on how to change the distribution of supply to achieve greater equity in access and utilisation. Previous methods for analysing the impact of hospital changes have relied on crude assumptions on patients' behaviour in using hospitals. The approach developed in this study is a multi-modelling one based on two mathematical programming location-allocation models to redistribute hospital supply using different objective functions and assumptions about the utilisation behaviour of patients. These models show how different policy objectives seeking equity of geographic access or utilisation produce different results and imply trade-offs in terms of reduction in total utilisation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering and Management Department, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal

    Mónica Duarte Oliveira

  2. LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics and Political Science, U.K.

    Mónica Duarte Oliveira

  3. Operational Research Department and LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics and Political Science, U.K.

    Gwyn Bevan

Authors
  1. Mónica Duarte Oliveira
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  2. Gwyn Bevan
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Correspondence to Mónica Duarte Oliveira.

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Oliveira, M.D., Bevan, G. Modelling the redistribution of hospital supply to achieve equity taking account of patient's behaviour. Health Care Manage Sci 9, 19–30 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-006-6277-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-006-6277-7

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