Introduction

Analytics and decision support are core parts of our value proposition—Advisory Board provides the data you need to make decisions for your organization in a changing healthcare landscape. We strive for continuous improvement in our analytical offerings to make our tools easier to use, easier to explain, and more actionable. Sometimes that means new features. For example, we recently added the ability to download market results to our Market Scenario Planner (MSP), which allows you to manipulate, integrate, and tailor the insights to your specific use cases. And sometimes it means improved methodologies to more accurately capture the market today and how we expect it to evolve.

The MSP forecasts volumes for healthcare services, markets, demographics, and sites of care. Volume forecasts are an invaluable asset to service prioritization, facility investment, and more. In the most recent update, we started rolling out a localized model for baseline volumes. We started with inpatient, where we have the strongest comparison data. But is just the first step as we continue to refine the model, expand to additional sites of care and ultimately evolve the forecasting methodology.

The MSP estimates inpatient volumes and uses rates at a granular, county‑by‑service‑line level by grounding projections in observed claims experience. This localized foundation allows the model to determine where demand is higher or lower than expected. The result is a more realistic baseline for understanding market opportunities, and evaluating the impact of potential changes in capacity, site of care, or service mix.