Health Services Demand and Utilization

Abstract

The demand for health services ultimately drives all healthcare planning activities. In fact, the demand for services is the raison d’etre for any healthcare organization. Most decisions on whether or not to offer a service will be predicated upon presumed levels of demand. Once a service is offered, virtually all decisions related to the continued provision of that service will be a function of the level of demand. For this reason, health planners spend a great deal of their time and effort trying to determine current and future levels of demand for total health services or for the specific services offered by the organization involved in the planning process.