Application of exponential smoothing method and SARIMA model in predicting the number of admissions in a third-class hospital in Zhejiang Province

OBJECTIVE: To establish the exponential smoothing prediction model and SARIMA model to predict the number of inpatients in a third-class hospital in Zhejiang Province, and evaluate the prediction effect of the two models, and select the best number prediction model. METHODS: The data of hospital admissions from January 2019 to September 2022 were selected to establish the exponential smoothing prediction model and the SARIMA model respectively. Then compare the fitting parameters of different models: R(2)_adjusted, R(2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE)、Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE)、Mean Absolute Error(MAE) and standardized BIC to select the best model. Finally, the established model was used to predict the number of hospital admissions from October to December 2022, and the prediction effect of the average relative error judgment model was compared. RESULTS: The best fitting exponential smoothing prediction model was Winters Addition model, whose R(2)_adjusted was 0.533, R(2) was 0.817, MAPE was 6.133, MAE was 447.341. The best SARIMA model is SARIMA(2,2,2)(0,1,1)(12) model, whose R(2)_adjusted is 0.449, R(2) is 0.199, MAPE is 8.240, MAE is 718.965. The Winters addition model and SARIMA(2,2,2)(0,1,1)(12) model were used to predict the number of hospital admissions in October-December 2022, respectively. The results showed that the average relative error was 0.038 and 0.015, respectively. The SARIMA(2,2,2)(0,1,1)(12) model had a good prediction effect. CONCLUSION: Both models can better fit the number of admissions, and SARIMA model has better prediction effect. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-17218-x.