The impact of hospital bed use on healthcare facilities operational costs

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine for the first time the impact of the intensity of hospital bed occupancy on healthcare facilities operational costs in France.Design/methodology/approachResearch methodology is based on empirical data collection from 19 short‐stay care acute and long‐term care hospital facilities in Paris, France, carried out during 2008. Statistic analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of bed occupancy on operational cost of health facilities. The purpose of the analysis is to determine the best practices and provide recommendations to the decision makers for operational cost budgeting purposes.FindingsThe main findings are the relationship between bed usage and operational costs of acute hospital facilities in France. An analysis of annual O&M (operation and maintenance) cost clearly indicated that type of medical activities had a major impact on O&M cost when the influence of all other potential factors, particularly, morphology, quality of construction and age, were excluded.Research limitations/implicationsData sample is limited to hospitals in the Paris region. Hence, extrapolation from the generated results to other regions in France is limited. Other facilities operational cost drivers, such as conditional surveys of buildings, need to be considered alongside the performance measures included in this study.Practical implicationsThe results will help in establishing best practices and benchmarking operational costs in heath care facilities in France. They will also assist in developing and planning strategic heath care operational budgets. One of the most important implications of the results is in assisting decision makers to develop facilities management improvement strategies.Originality/valueThe research described in this paper represents significantly advances in the understanding of the impact of medical activities on operation and maintenance costs of healthcare facilities in France.