Healthcare Research

Strategic Planning for Health Care Expansion ⤻

Since 1982, BSR has conducted surveys, focus groups and evaluations of patient satisfaction, hospital practice, physician relations and health care delivery. These studies involve both strategic planning for new hospital services and expansion of facilities, and the evaluation of hospital image, advertising impact, and service delivery quality.

Strategic planning for health care expansion includes:

    • Estimations of population growth rates and projected demand for new and expanding hospitals and health care services. Based on sample surveys, demo¬graphic analysis and cohort components population projections, BSR provides catchment-area estimates of net population and key market segment growth and service specific utilization rates, as well as determining the impact of opening branded services in new locations.
    • Litigation support, providing or contesting hospital utilization projections, population growth estimates and assessments of hospital popularity; evaluations of cost effectiveness and hospital demand; detection of Medicaid or pharmacy fraud; detection of provision of unlicensed services; and disputing false advertising claims.
    • Physician relations studies, including focus groups and surveys of physicians to provide insight into referral patterns, overall reputation of hospital services among physicians, and potential attractiveness of new hospital services among physicians.

Hospital and Health Care Image and Market Share Analysis ⤻

Since 1982, BSR has conducted surveys, focus groups and evaluations of patient satisfaction, hospital practice, physician relations and health care delivery. These studies involve both strategic planning for new hospital services and expansion of facilities, and the evaluation of hospital image, advertising impact, and service delivery quality.

Hospital and health care image and market share analysis includes:

    • Market surveys and focus groups to assist hospitals, HMOs, home health care companies, psychiatric care centers, pediatric urgent care centers and nursing homes in planning new services, assessing public image and attain¬ing greater market share. Areas of study have included outpatient urgent care centers, mobile mammography facilities, specialty facilities for children, home health services, skilled nursing home facilities and occupational/physical therapy centers. For several clients, BSR tracks image and awareness through cycles of negative publicity, name changes, facility improvements, growing competition and service expansion.
    • Advertising reaction and impact studies, testing the impact of television commercials and printed material on public opinion, including copy testing, comparative analysis of competitor advertising, and response to specific graphic and copy elements in health care advertising.
    • Name change and public image research for health care, insurance and hospital corporations, assessing the impact of potential new corporate identities on community acceptance.
    • Surveys to measure patient and non patient characteristics, to profile the health care utilization patterns, demographics, psychological needs and hospital image of patient groups and non patient groups, including provider image for specialty services (e.g., burn units, pediatric oncology, weight loss surgery).
    • Focus groups with doctors and health care consumers, to assist hospitals in planning new inpatient services, expand¬ed outpatient services, business and corporate health care programs.

HIV/AIDS ⤻

Since 1992, BSR has been involved in HIV/AIDS research and community planning, first working with the Dade County Office of Management and Budget on the initial planning and design of a multi-year assessment of needs, community responses, and adequacy of the existing network of care for people with HIV/AIDS.  Current work focuses on four projects:

    • Ryan White Program Client Satisfaction Survey  Data collection and anlyzation to inform one or more related Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and identify opportunities for Quality Improvement projects, capacity building, and Quality Improvement intervention among Ryan White Program providers.
    • Annual Needs Assessment  A HRSA-mandated activity of Ryan White Program Planning Councils, the Annual Needs Assessment is a comprehensive annual data collection and analysis of the Miami-Dade County HIV/AIDS service system.
    • Women-Centered Care Study  To identify effective provider and system women-centered HIV care practices within the Ryan White Program that positively influence HIV care retention and viral load suppression among women experiencing sociocultural challenges.
    • Patient-Centered Care Study To identify HIV provider patient centered care factors related to access, cultural competency, communication, health literacy, coordination, patient self-management, and respectful and courteous staff that buffer the effect of changes in individual characteristics on retention in care and viral suppression while considering neighborhood social determinants and medical case management site factors and that, if included in a system-wide implementation, could result in the greatest improvement in retention in HIV care and viral suppression and reduce health disparities.