Times of acute and structural pressure on surgical care require optimal use of operating capacity. During COVID-19, a lack of management information led to local, ad hoc decision-making about who would be operated on and when. This resulted in variations in practice, avoidable health loss, and suboptimal use of resources. There is a need for a model that provides insight into and supports the effective use of scarce operating capacity, aimed at maximizing health gains. PRIORITIZE II is developing a proof-of-concept model into a dashboard that links the health gains of operations to capacity and costs. By forming a consortium of hospitals and a research institute, we obtain real-life data and standardize data exchange, thereby expanding and further validating the model. In addition, we are adding an optimization function to enable optimal allocation of surgical capacity in times of scarcity.
