Improving surgical outcomes through optimal volumes allocation

In this paper, we propose an innovative managerial use of the volume-outcome association, a relation that associates higher volume of activity to better results. We analyze how this relation can be used to help decision makers in allocating surgery interventions among health care structures, a relevant long term planning problem. We analytically study different objective functions in order to drive the allocation process towards better health conditions for patients. We provide a decision support tool for health policy makers, which helps achieving better population health, in terms of quality and fairness. Our approach has been tested on three case studies taking into account real life factors such as geographical distribution of hospitals, specialization thresholds and hospital performance. Results have been compared to the real data from the Italian National Outcome Evaluation Program.