A Simple Stochastic Model for Facility Planning in a Mental Health Care System
Published Online:1 Oct 1983https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.13.5.101
Abstract
General hospital (GH) psychiatric units are increasingly being used as alternatives to public mental hospitals (PHs). Although “back-of-the-envelope” calculation predicted that each bed in a new GH unit would reduce the census at the PH by 1.5 to 2 patients, our more careful analysis, involving a simple stochastic model, showed that this effect was much less. The model accurately predicts census levels for all but chronic patients, and has since been used by local and state planners.
