Across the OECD, countries are facing an ageing population and an increase in chronic diseases, both driving hospitalizations and the need for hospital care. At the same time, countries record rising healthcare expenditures and experience health workforce shortages. In response, many OECD countries have reformed or started reforming hospital planning as a policy tool to steer hospital service delivery and are revisiting the way hospital service mandates/ contracts are granted. They aim at organizing the delivery of care in a more efficient way while ensuring the provision of accessible high-quality care.
The OECD and the School of Medicine are undertaking a project to examine hospital planning across selected OECD countries: for Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The project has three main objectives: (i) to map current hospital planning approaches, including key enabling factors and barriers; (ii) to identify best practices and current challenges; and (iii) to analyse emerging trends towards new approaches to further optimize hospital care.
Prof. Dr. Alexander Geissler, Dr. David Ehlig, Dr. Justus Vogel, Daria Bukanova-Berend, Charlotte Schneider, Marcel Blum
OECD
June 2025 – November 2025