Occupancy for a hospital

The Valley Hospital measures the in-patient occupancy of the hospital by determining the number of patient days divided by the number of available bed days in the hospital for a time period. The following in-patient data are available for the months of April, May, and June:

Admitted Patients:

April - 1,440

May - 1,860

June - 2,250

Average Length of stay per patient

April - 4.0 days

May - 3.5 days

June - 3.0 days

The hospital has 200 rooms. One hundred rooms are private and have a single bed per room. The other hundred rooms are semi-private with two beds per room.

a) Determine the number of in-patient days for each month.

The number of In-patient Days:

April - ?

May - ?

June -?

b) Determine the available bed days for each month

Available Bed Days

April - ?

May - ?

June - ?

c) Determine the occupancy rate for each month

Occupancy Rate

April - ?

May - ?

June - ?

d) Based on the occupancy rate, interpret the results?

The Occupancy rate ________ from April to May and again from May to June. This suggests the hospital bed capacity is ________ over time. A closer examination of the data reveals that the average length of stay is _________, while the number of admissions is ________. The average length of stay may be ________ because of greater efficiency in delivering health care, assuming no change in treatment mix being provided over the three months. This potential improvement provides a greater capacity to accept new patients, as can be seen from the three-month data. Thus, the _______ length of stay and greater occupancy are both contributing to the hospital's ability to serve more patients per month.