Speaker
Description
This paper focuses on framing healthcare accessibility using a system dynamics (SD) approach. The widely discussed concept of healthcare accessibility can be broadly defined as the realized utilization of healthcare services with the goal of fully meeting patients' healthcare needs. However, patients' healthcare needs are evolving significantly due to, among others, recent demographic and epidemiological shifts. This is expected to lead to changed and increased demand for healthcare services, particularly for patients with chronic conditions who require continuous, coordinated, and comprehensive care with minimal disruptions. Mobility plays a crucial role in ensuring such care. If healthcare systems do not adapt to these changes, they will no longer be able to provide the opportunity for patients to have their healthcare needs fulfilled. Recent discussions already have highlighted a misalignment between the demand and supply of healthcare systems. Key issues include: service overuse, overburdened systems, fragmented care, high workloads, and provider burnout. At the same time, healthcare is often underutilized by vulnerable groups, compounded by inequalities in access to digital care, mobility constraints and costly treatments. In response, calls for healthcare reform strategies in Europe have intensified over the past two decades, emphasizing the need for multisectoral collaboration across the healthcare and mobility systems. In this paper, we specifically focus on these interactions between the mobility and healthcare sectors in the Netherlands using the Triple Access System approach (TRIAS). Academic literature argues that TRIAS is a robust framework for policy decision-making. However, to our knowledge, its application in the healthcare context remains underexplored. Our aim in this paper is to develop an integrated view on healthcare accessibility, which can be used to explore alternative options to improve accessibility. To this end, we apply an SD to capture interconnections among digital healthcare systems, physical healthcare systems, and mobility systems, all within the broader context of healthcare accessibility. The SD will feed a research agenda aimed at supporting healthcare strategists and decision-makers to better manage healthcare accessibility within the context of complex healthcare systems.
| Keywords | healthcare accessibility, digital healthcare, mobility |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
