title: Market-based demand forecasting promotes informed strategic financial planning.
abstract: Market-based demand forecasting is a method of estimating future demand for a healthcare organization's services by using a broad range of data that describe the nature of demand within the organization's service area. Such data include the primary and secondary service areas, the service-area populations by various demographic groupings, discharge utilization rates, market size, and market share by service line and organizationwide. Based on observable market dynamics, strategic planners can make a variety of explicit assumptions about future trends regarding these data to develop scenarios describing potential future demand. Financial planners then can evaluate each scenario to determine its potential effect on selected financial and operational measures, such as operating margin, days cash on hand, and debt-service coverage, and develop a strategic financial plan that covers a range of contingencies.
authors.affiliation: Ferox Microsystems, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia, USA. abeech@ferox.com
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Beech
mesh_terms: D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital / Q000379:methods*; D005544:Forecasting; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000639:trends*; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D020380:Needs Assessment; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010934:Planning Techniques; D014481:United States