Regional planning

There are several useful historical and modern examples of regional planning, in which hospital networks were integrated into coordinated health services. For example, during the period of the Soviet Union’s existence in the 20th century, the government was charged with the responsibility of providing health care to all citizens. In Sweden modern coordinated health services centre primarily on hospital services, which are the responsibility of the goverment.

In the early 2st century, regional planning of hospital services in Sweden was highly organized. The country was divided into health service regions and had three different levels of health care: primary (general practitioner), secondary (small hospitals that offered most medical specialities), and tertiary (university hospitals, one each for the six main health service regions). Several of the country’s hospital facilities had about 1,000 beds, as well as specialized and outpatient facilities. Small communities had health centres or ambulatory service centres that were not necessarily administered as part of the hospital system.

During its existence the Soviet Union took a somewhat different approach. In its thinly populated rural areas, general hospitals, called uchastok hospitals, served populations as small as 2,000 to 15,000 persons. The next-larger hospitals, the district hospitals, had 250–500 beds and usually had divisions for surgical, medical, obstetric, and pediatric services and provided care for infectious diseases. Patients who could not be treated adequately in the district hospitals were referred to the next-higher level, the regional hospital, which served a population of 1,000,000–5,000,000 people and contained up to 1,250 beds. The republic hospital, often associated with medical education and with one or more research institutes, occupied the highest level in the Soviet system. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, each soviet socialist republic adopted its own approach to administering and financing hospital services and health care.

Regional planning in North America historically was less advanced relative to the government-controlled systems developed elsewhere in the world. One regional pattern that was implemented in the United States was a satellite system, which centred on a metropolis and applied the principle of progressive patient care. The system focused on the efficient provision of comprehensive health care to the residents of the region. Less-serious cases were handled in the outer, more accessible health facilities of the system; the more serious cases were referred to the inner hospitals of the ring or to the research and teaching hospital at the core.

The term metropolitan planning council is often used to denote an advisory planning group that coordinates services between member hospitals in a metropolitan area and decides where specialized services are to be delivered and what services or number of beds are to be added. However, in the United States most hospitals are not government-operated, and it is often difficult to achieve close cooperation between voluntary groups.

In Canada through the late 1990s and early 2000s, most provinces shifted to regional health authorities, which plan, allocate resources, and apply government health policies. However, several jurisdictions favoured more centralized models, with one or a small number of authorities directing the delivery of all services.