An application of organizational input-output analysis to hospital management

The main components of an acute-care hospital and the relationships among them are used to construct an organizational input-output model similar to those based on the interdependence among industries in an economy. The basic model makes it possible to forecast the personnel needed by each component in order to provide the services expected from it by the external environment and by the other hospital departments. Extensions of the basic model can be applied to health care organizations in general, used to analyze the implications of different organizational reforms or extended to include physical, financial, and other resources. The methods presented and the results obtained are of particular interest to managers of health care organizations, managers in general, and researchers in the theory of organization.