Barriers for capacity pooling in health care systems – a questionnaire study

Paper in proceeding, 2019

Background: In this paper, we examine how pooling – a theoretically based strategy for capacity planning – can be used to create a higher service level at a given total capacity in the healthcare sector.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived practical barriers for a capacity pooling strategy in healthcare systems.

Method: Based on a previous interview study with specialty department managers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital where 22 types of barriers for capacity pooling were found, grouped in six different categories, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among managers (N=1177; n = 473) in the Region Västra Götaland healthcare system. Data were analyzed with a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), an explorative principal component analysis (PCA) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Results: The six barrier categories could not be confirmed by the CFA. Instead, the PCA identified four primary barriers for capacity pooling systems. These were; threshold heights, community view, recruitment difficulties and physical distance. A two-way mixed ANOVA showed that there were significant differences in perceived height among these barriers. However, there were only small differences among the different types of participating managers.

Conclusion: The four barriers need to be considered in order to introduce capacity pooling successfully in a healthcare system.