Calculating & Reporting Healthcare Statistics

Second Edition

Chapter 4Percentage of Occupancy

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Inpatient Bed Count

• The number of available facility inpatient beds, both occupied and vacant, on any given day– In a hospital this includes beds set up for

normal use, whether or not they are occupied– May be reported for the entire hospital or for

any of its units

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Inpatient Bed Count

• Excludes beds in– Treatment rooms– Examining rooms– Emergency services– Physical therapy– Labor rooms– Recovery rooms– Newborn beds, called bassinets, are

computed separately from the bed count

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Newborn Bassinet Count

• The number of available hospital newborn bassinets, both occupied and vacant, on any given day

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Inpatient Bed Count

• In a hospital, the number of available beds in a facility or a unit may remain constant for long periods of time

• The number can and often does change– Some beds may be unavailable during a

major remodeling or renovation project– May increase after the project is completed

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Inpatient Bed Count

• Other names– Bed complement– Bed capacity

• This may be confusing as this also denotes the number of beds that a facility has been designed and constructed to contain

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Bed Count Days

• A unit of measure denoting the presence of one inpatient bed (either occupied or vacant) set up and staffed for use in one 24-hour period– Refers to the sum of inpatient bed count days for

each of the days in the period under consideration– May be referred to as the maximum number of patient

days or potential days because they represent a statistical probability of every bed being occupied every day

• If every hospital bed were filled each day the occupancy rate would be 100 percent

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Bed Occupancy Ratio/Percentage

• The ratio of inpatient service days to bed count days in the period under consideration

• The inpatient census represents the actual occupancy (number of occurrences)

• The bed count represents the possibility for occupancy (number of times it could have occurred or the maximum possible)

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Bed Occupancy Ratio/Percentage

• Formula– Total inpatient service days in a period x 100 /

Total bed count days in the period

(Bed count x Number of days in the period)

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Bed Occupancy Ratio/Percentage

• Other Names– Percent of Occupancy– Occupancy Percent– Occupancy Ratio

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Change in Bed Count

• Represents a permanent change and is not designed to meet an emergency situation

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Newborn Bassinet Occupancy Ratio

• Formula– Total newborn inpatient service days for a

period x 100 / Total newborn bassinet count x Number of days in the period

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Bed Turnover Rate

• The number of times a bed, on average, changes occupants during a given period of time, OR

• The average number of admissions per bed per time period

• Useful because two time periods may have the same percentage of occupancy, but the turnover rates may be different