In order to adapt staffing to daily needs, data platforms can drive better anticipation of patient demand (through patient forecasting), ensuring that there are enough health care providers to support a patient load.

A major use case for machine learning in operations is predicting hospital bed or emergency room availability. Emergency room overcrowding is an expensive and dangerous problem that can be reduced by a system that predicts the number of incoming patients, and subsequently prioritizes discharging patients to free up space or redirects incoming cases to nearby hospitals.