Public resources devoted to health care sector are becoming more and more scarce, whereas demand for health is increasing rapidly. In order to minimize the unavoidable consequential reduction in the service provided to the community, efforts are made to use available resources as effectively as possible to satisfy the need of the population. What is usually lacking in planning the optimal allocation of scarce resources is the consideration of the stochastic nature of the demand and of the supply. A simulation model is proposed to take into account these characteristics in order to fine tune the planning of hospital beds. To explain how this model may help planners an observational study on the actual situation of two Stroke Units in public Italian Hospital has been developed. JEL I18 C80

Angela Testi, Marco Benacchio, in "ECONOMIA PUBBLICA " 4/2001, pp. , DOI: