Analyzing and Improving Technology Investment Decisions at Hospitals

Virginia Polytechnic Inst And St Univ, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract - Analyzing and Improving Technology Investment Decisions at Hospitals The goal of this project is to improve technology investment decisions at hospitals by developing and field- testing a novel data-to-decision methodology. Hospitals spend a substantial amount of their budgets on medical technologies and many hospitals seek guidance on how to better allocate their resources. Deciding whether, and when, to purchase which technologies is complex due to uncertainties about financial and medical outcomes, dynamic interdependencies among difficult-to-quantify factors, conflicting objectives, and a multi-level decision process with numerous stakeholders. Inefficient and ineffective investment decisions represent a significant problem because medical technology expenditures are a major contributor to the high and ever-rising health care costs in the United States. This project uses qualitative data analysis, system dynamics modeling and multi-objective decision analysis to improve technology investment decisions in hospitals with a focus on robotic surgery, the project's pilot technology.