Harness the Power of Prescriptive Analytics to Optimise Healthcare Demand and Capacity
- dhewapanna0
- Jun 2
- 2 min read
With more patients coming through the doors and fewer doctors, nurses and other resources to help around, hospitals are under constant pressure to do more with less. That’s why many are now leaning into AI-powered tools to get ahead—using predictive and prescriptive analytics to take the guesswork out of managing patient flow and capacity.
The Growing Challenge of Patient Demand:
🔴 The UK healthcare system is facing significant challenges due to increasing patient demand, particularly in Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments. In September 2024, there were 2,214,217 attendances at A&E departments across England, averaging 73,807 daily visits. This represents a 2% rise compared to September 2023. However, only 74.2% of patients were admitted, transferred, or discharged within the NHS's 4-hour target, falling short of the 95% standard as reported by NHS England.
🔴 Similarly, Emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S. have been steadily increasing, reflecting a growing demand for emergency medical services. As per National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, there were approximately 140 million ED visits, averaging 42.7 visits per 100 people.
Without a clear view of patient flow, healthcare providers struggle to balance demand and resources effectively.
How Prescriptive Analytics Can Offer Value:
Prescriptive analytics is able to continuously monitor the ED and all its key operational metrics, providing targeted recommendations based on both the current and predicted future state, something that’s incredibly challenging for humans to do. The sheer complexity and volume of ongoing operations make it difficult for individuals to predict how each metric will evolve in the coming hours and to take the right action at the right moment. Prescriptive analytics automates this process, ensuring more precise and timely decision-making.
✅ Automated Decision-Making: Prescriptive analytics continuously monitors key metrics (e.g: ED visits, bed occupancy, staffing) and provides tailored, data-driven recommendations in real-time.
✅ Improved Accuracy: AI models predict future needs, ensuring timely and precise decision-making in environments where human predictions are often inaccurate.
✅ Operational Efficiency: Streamlines resource allocation, preventing bottlenecks and ensuring optimal bed capacity and staffing levels.
AI-Powered Solutions for Smarter Healthcare:
Trendlytics leverages AI-driven predictive analytics to provide hospitals with hourly forecasts for ED arrivals, census, bed capacity, and staffing up to 21 days in advance, offering a comprehensive forward-looking view of hospital operations.
Additionally, with prescriptive analytics, Trendlytics provides actionable recommendations to optimize bed occupancy, prevent bottlenecks, allocate resources efficiently, and support proactive decision-making. This enables hospitals to adopt data-driven strategies for better demand and capacity management.
Discover how Trendlytics can help your hospital stay ahead — get in touch with us today!
Source: NHS England » Monthly Operational Statistics – October 2024, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2021 Emergency Department Summary Tables
