Demand based process management for cost-effective control in mental health care organizations

Metaphor/introduction: Imagine a plant nursery has a plot of land. The land is full of all kinds of plants. The gardeners maintain the plants in the best possible way. Some plants need to be moved or pruned, while others need more water or sunlight. In this case the gardener has no organisation made to annual, biennial or perennial plants. If you organize plants upon entering, it’s possible to maintain plants more efficiently and effectively for plant (client/DBC), gardener (practitioner) and nursery (mental health care organization). This metaphor shows in a nutshell what this research is about. Objective: Nowadays the problem for mental health care organizations is that they control retrospectively instead of prospectively. However there are a lot of developments in the last twenty years, which can be possibly applicable for mental health care organizations. The objective of this thesis is to gain insight in demand based process management in mental health care organizations to operate more cost-effective. The expectation is that demand for care is even in complex mental health care predictable where each individual practitioner believes he is treating unique patients who require unique treatments. This research will definitely not interfering with the content of care. Results of this research will facilitate practitioners to continue treating on the long term, to the satisfaction of clients and organization. Research questions: The main research question is how demand based process management can be shaped for cost-effective care in mental health care organizations? The focus will be on tacticaland operational level. The following research questions are formulated: - What is demand based process management? - Which demand segments with associated characteristics can be distinguished? - What is the effect of applying demand segments in practice? To what extent can demand segments be capacitated into disciplines? - To what extent can demand segments and capacity be controlled based on performance indicators? - How can demand based process management be embedded in a mental health care production control framework?