Determining Hospital Workforce Requirements: A Case Study

The difficulty of ensuring an adequate and appropriate distribution of health services, together with increasing financial pressures in the public sector, are forcing many countries to consider using more rigorous methods for determining staffing levels in the health facilities. The Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) method is one such method. It uses a form of activity analysis (activity standards), together with measures of utilisation and workload to determine staffing requirements. The method provides a vehicle for assessing localised staffing needs that is believable and which at the same time is sharply different to historic methods. This paper describes experiences in applying this method in hospitals in Turkey. [abstract]