Overview

The health reform process in Switzerland is complicated and almost always takes a very long time due to the fact that particularly broad consensus of the main stakeholders is required. One important area of reform in recent years has been the acute inpatient sector: Diagnosis Related Group (DRG-) based hospital payment was introduced in 2012 and hospital planning was considerably improved through the adoption of detailed planning criteria and increased coordination across cantons. This article provides an overview of hospital reforms in Switzerland and highlights interesting features of the hospital planning model that was adopted by most Cantons in 2015.