Medical advancements determine health-system capacity requirements.

As the rate of advancements in medical technology accelerates, healthcare executives need to anticipate the impact that these advancements will have on health-system demand and capacity requirements. Determining these requirements is critical but difficult. Many hospitals today are operating at capacity, particularly in such areas as the emergency department, operating room, and critical care unit. Key market forces are transforming the way health care is organized, delivered, and financed. One such market force is the escalating pace of medical advancement. The healthcare industry lacks a centralized resource that tracks such developments and assesses the impact on hospital service-line demand and capacity requirements. By following an approach designed to help determine these requirements, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, was able to forecast its future capacity requirements.