| Course | HI230 Quality Assurance and Statistics in Health Information 1 |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 4 |
| Paper type | Occupancy rate worksheet |
| Length | About 790 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Information Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI230 Unit 4
Twelve Beds Opened on June 20: A Unit 4 Occupancy Rate Worksheet Splitting the Month at the Date the Bed Count Changed, Computing the Newborn Rate Separately and Pricing the Two Shortcuts That Get It Wrong
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HI230: Quality Assurance and Statistics in Health Information 1
Unit 4 Occupancy Rate Worksheet
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, its beds and its counts are composite; the formulas and the sources cited are real.
What Counts as a Bed
Bed count, for this worksheet, means inpatient beds set up and staffed for use on a given day, which is the count the hospital's statistics policy uses. Licensed beds that are not set up do not count, and neither do stretchers in the emergency department or recovery room. Bassinets for healthy newborns are counted apart from adult and pediatric beds (Horton, 2017).
Bed Count Days, in Two Parts
June has 30 days. The bed count changed once, so the month splits into two segments, each multiplied by its own number of days.
1. June 1 through June 19: 150 beds for 19 days gives 2,850 bed count days.
2. June 20 through June 30: 162 beds for 11 days gives 1,782 bed count days.
3. Total for June: 2,850 plus 1,782 gives 4,632 bed count days.
The new beds are counted from the day they opened, not from the first of the month and not from July. The date the twelve beds were staffed was confirmed in the nursing administration log rather than taken from the press release, which named the week but not the day.
Adults and Children
Formula, in words: the month's inpatient service days over the month's bed count days, times 100. With figures: 4,076 divided by 4,632 equals 0.87997, multiplied by 100 gives 88.0 percent. The answer turns on one date. Move the opening from June 20 to June 1 and the same patients produce a different month.
Bassinets on Their Own
The nursery had 20 bassinets all month, so bassinet count days are 20 times 30, or 600. Newborn inpatient service days for June were 468. Formula, in words: newborn inpatient service days divided by bassinet count days, multiplied by 100. With figures: 468 divided by 600 equals 0.78, or 78.0 percent. Folding these figures into the adult rate would give 4,544 over 5,232, or 86.9 percent, a number that describes neither the nursery nor the floors.
The Shortcuts, Priced
Two shortcuts tempt anyone working quickly, and both use one bed figure for the whole month.
1. Using the old count, 150 beds for 30 days, gives 4,500 bed count days and 90.6 percent. This overstates occupancy by 2.6 points, because it ignores eleven days of new capacity.
2. Using the new count, 162 beds for 30 days, gives 4,860 bed count days and 83.9 percent. This understates occupancy by 4.1 points, because it credits the hospital with beds that did not exist for most of the month.
Neither error looks absurd on a dashboard, which is what makes them dangerous. The 90.6 figure would support an argument that the new beds were not enough, and the 83.9 figure would support an argument that they were not needed.
What Eighty-Eight Percent Says
Occupancy for adults and children ran 84.1 percent in March, 85.6 percent in April and 86.9 percent in May, so June continues a steady climb even with twelve more beds open for the last third of the month. That trend, not the single figure, is the useful finding. At an average near 88 percent, a hospital that admits much of its work through the emergency department can expect regular days with no free bed, and modeling of emergency admissions puts the point where shortages become routine somewhere above 85 percent (Bagust et al., 1999). The same research tradition warns that the safe average depends on unit size, since small units reach capacity at lower average occupancy than large ones (Green, 2002). The rate can exceed 100 percent. When patients are held in temporary beds during a surge and the official count is not changed, those patients add service days to the numerator while the denominator stays the same. The worksheet found no such days in June, but the note belongs in every report so the reader knows the figure has no ceiling. What the figure cannot show is which units were full or on which days. A hospital-wide 88 percent may hide a medical floor at 97 percent and a surgical floor at 74 percent. The next step, if the question is where to open the next beds, is the same calculation by unit and a count of days each unit spent above 90 percent.
References
Bagust, A., Place, M., & Posnett, J. W. (1999). Dynamics of bed use in accommodating emergency admissions: Stochastic simulation model. BMJ, 319(7203), 155-158. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7203.155
Green, L. V. (2002). How many hospital beds? Inquiry, 39(4), 400-412. https://doi.org/10.5034/inquiryjrnl_39.4.400
Horton, L. A. (2017). Calculating and reporting healthcare statistics (5th ed.). AHIMA Press.
Reading the HI 230 Unit 4 instructions
Unit 4 usually gives a period, a bed count history and the inpatient service days for adults and children, and often the same figures for newborns. The task is to compute the occupancy rate correctly when the bed count is not constant. Expect to define what counts as a bed, multiply each bed count by the days it applied, add the segments, and divide service days by the result. Most prompts want the formula in words and in numbers, results to one decimal place and newborns computed apart from adults and children. Some sections also ask you to interpret the figure, compare it with earlier months or explain how occupancy could exceed one hundred percent. Show the dates of each segment, since the date the count changed decides the answer and a grader will look at it before anything else.
How this HI230 Unit 4 example is built
The worksheet opens with a short definition of a bed, set up and staffed, and notes that bassinets are counted on their own. The bed count days block lists the two segments with their dates and adds them to 4,632. The adult and child rate follows in words and in figures, and a highlighted line notes that moving the opening date would change the month. The bassinet rate comes next, along with what a combined figure would wrongly show. A boxed comparison prices the two shortcuts in percentage points and says which argument each wrong figure would feed. The interpretation section sets June against March, April and May, cites research on emergency admissions and unit size, explains how a rate can pass one hundred percent and names the unit-level calculation a planning question would need.
HI230 Unit 4 rubric: what earns full points
The rubric for this worksheet puts most points on the denominator. A correctly split bed count, with each segment's days and a correct sum, carries the largest share, followed by the rate itself rounded as the key asks. Newborn occupancy computed separately usually earns its own points, and folding bassinets into adult beds typically loses them. Graders also reward a clear definition of the bed count used, because licensed, staffed and set-up beds produce different answers. Interpretation points go to a reading that compares months, notes the limits of a hospital-wide average and mentions when a figure above one hundred percent is possible. Neat layout matters here more than in essays: labeled segments, formulas before numbers and results in a short summary. Sources in APA 7 support the interpretation paragraph rather than the arithmetic.
Common HI230 Unit 4 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The usual slip is dividing by a single bed figure for the whole month, which either overstates or understates the rate depending on which count you pick. Split the period at each change. Another is dividing service days by the number of beds, which gives days per bed rather than a percentage. Students also start the new beds from the first of the month, or from the press release date rather than the day the beds were staffed. Keep newborns out of the adult rate, and do not round partway through the calculation. Bring us your bed count history and service days and we can produce the worksheet with each segment laid out the way your instructor grades it. One last habit worth keeping: check the result against the earlier months, since a sudden jump often points to a denominator error.
Get an HI230 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Send the bed count history and service day figures from your Unit 4 worksheet, including any date the count changed, together with the instructions and rubric. The custom worksheet shows the denominator built in full, adult and newborn rates apart, and comes back in 24-48h. Composite values fill any gap the prompt leaves. First requests are free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HI230 Unit 4 questions, answered
Why not divide by the number of beds?
Because the numerator is measured in days, so the denominator has to be as well. Service days over beds gives days per bed, not a percentage of capacity. Multiplying the bed count by the days in the period converts beds into the same unit as the numerator, which is what makes the result a true occupancy rate.
Can occupancy really exceed one hundred percent?
Yes, occasionally. When a hospital places patients in temporary beds, hallway stretchers or overflow space during a surge, those patients generate service days while the official bed count stays the same. The example mentions this in its interpretation paragraph because a figure above one hundred on a key is usually a sign of that situation rather than an arithmetic error.
What if the bed count changes more than once in the period?
Then the period splits into as many segments as there are counts, each multiplied by its own number of days, and the products are summed. The example has two segments; the same layout extends to three or four. Listing each segment on its own line, with its dates, keeps the denominator easy to check for anyone grading it.
Where can I find a free HI230 Unit 4 sample paper?
This page holds the full Unit 4 occupancy worksheet, with the June bed count split at the twentieth, an 88.0 percent rate and a separate bassinet rate.
How do you calculate occupancy when beds are added mid-month?
Multiply each bed count by the number of days it was in effect, add the products to get bed count days, then divide inpatient service days by that total and multiply by 100.