Capacity Planning in Paediatric Palliative and Hospice Care: An Italian Case

Although the growing demand for healthcare services has enhanced the occurrence of inefficiencies in care provision, healthcare systems should ensure safe, timely and equitable access to care. In particular, the long waiting lists, the lack of beds, and the shortage of healthcare workforce have highlighted the necessity to effectively manage and strategically plan the available resources. Capacity Planning (CP) contributes to determine what, when, where and how much product or service to deliver, with the goal of analysing and optimizing the use and allocation of human and material resources (e.g., physical spaces, equipment, beds, workforce) based on the demand. CP demonstrates to be extremely relevant for hospital units to schedule appointments, diagnostics, surgeries and admissions. Complex contexts and broader healthcare networks could benefit even more from this approach, helping to coordinate multiple care providers and aligning the available resources with the demand pace. The current research presents the implementation of CP in the context of Paediatric Palliative and Hospice Care (PPHC), delivered in an Italian facility. PPHC provides long-term, interdisciplinary and coordinated care between territorial, ambulatory and hospice services. It encompasses follow-up activities, parental training, end-of-life and respite care. In the Italian case analysed, the shortage of beds affects the quality of care delivered to these patients, in terms of accessibility to the service, effectiveness and timeliness of care. Hence, a CP analysis has been performed to pursue a twofold objective: a) to understand if the current capacity of the facility meets the demand for care; b) to improve productivity through an optimized allocation of resources, particularly the available beds and the healthcare workforce. The expected results involve a more effective use of resources, an increased bed occupancy rate and a reduction in rescheduled admissions due to inadequate planning. Optimizing capacity in this specific setting can serve as a pilot project for other similar contexts, aiming to improve patients’ access to healthcare services, their quality of life and supporting the workforce involved in PPHC. This research offers new insights from both the academic and managerial point of view, providing evidence about the implementation of CP in complex healthcare settings.