ABSTRACT
The problems with health service production can be clarified by segmenting healthcare into managerially homogeneous types. The segmenting principle is the constellation of demand and supply, what needs to be done and what can be done. Demand is defined by urgency, severity, and risk; supply is defined by clinical clarity (diagnostics), expected end point, and the social, technical, and economic constraints of production.
With these variables, healthcare can be classified into seven demand and supply–based operating logic (DSO): emergency, prevention, one visit, elective, cure, care, and projects.
Each DSO can be conceptualized as a distinct business model with a specific demand type, arrival channels, healing relationships, process types, resource requirements, partners, and revenue models. The DSO construct produces an equivalent of the manufacturing product–process matrix for healthcare.
Some DSOs have clear architectural representations, such as emergency departments (emergency) and nursing homes (care). Others overlap, constituting a multiverse of different logics. The DSOs can be seen as managerial platforms upon which clinical apps may operate.
