Regional health care planning: a methodology to cluster facilities using community utilization patterns | BMC-HSR

Community-based health care planning and regulation necessitates grouping facilities and areal units into regions of similar health care use. Limited research has explored the methodologies used in creating these regions. 

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The authors offer a new methodology that clusters facilities based on similarities in patient utilization patterns and geographic location. Their case study focused on Hospital Groups in Michigan, the allocation units used for predicting future inpatient hospital bed demand in the state’s Bed Need Methodology. The scientific, practical, and political concerns that were considered throughout the formulation and development of the methodology are detailed.