EVALUATING CHANGES IN THE HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM: AN APPLICATION TO INTENSIVE CARE MONITORING

The paper proposes a tool for evaluation of potential changes in the system for the delivery of health care. Starting with a definition of a community health production function, the paper introduces the concept of 'nested production functions' in health care. The production function approach is seen as providing a mechanism for explicit consideration of the substitution and optimal input combination questions which are the basis of all evaluations of changes in the health care delivery system. The discussion of this technique is followed by an application to intensive care monitoring. While actual data has not been gathered, a model was formulated for evaluating the effect of computerization of certain intensive care monitoring procedures.