Designing for Reduced Operating Costs in a Maternity Unit

ABSTRACT

Operating costs of hospitals make great demands on resources. This paper describes the possibility of using the methodology of linear systems to find ways for designing for reduced operating costs in a maternity unit in England.

The organizational framework of the United Kingdom National Health Service, and its capital planning processes are outlined. Capital cost control methods used in building English hospitals are explained and then the early stages of an experiment in which the step response of an injection of capital to a capital building project are described.

The project itself is in a maternity unit. Maternity has been chosen because it is particularly suitable for this kind of experiment having a relatively well defined input and output, and well established indicators of clinical outcome. It is hoped that insight into the step response will shed light on news ways of designing for reduced operating costs.