Posted: February 5th, 2015

Census Assignment

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

In this assignment you will learn to calculate a monthly census report for a health care organization.Use the Census Data Assignment Instructions to complete the monthly census report in the Excel file provided to you. Here is a key for the abbreviations in the spreadsheet file:

A/C means adults and children
Nb means newborns

Trf In means transfers in
Trf Out means transfers out
b means births

Census Data Assignment:

READINGS

Read and understand the inpatient census data pg 426-430 of the Statistic chapter (LaTour chapter 15).

Understand the following:

-Hospital Inpatients-a hospital patient who is provided with room, board, and continuous general nursing service in an area of the hospital where patients generally stay at least overnight.

-Hospital Newborn-a hospital patient who was born in the hospital at the beginning of the current inpatient hospitalization (normal or with some kind of pathologic condition).

Geographic Organization of the Facility:

Inpatient beds-accommodations with supporting services for inpatients excluding those for newborn nursery.

Newborn bassinets-accommodations with supporting services for newborn (possibly bassinets, cribs, incubators, isolettes in a regular nursery or NB-ICU).

Medical care units-an assemblage of inpatient beds (or newborn accommodations) and related facilities and assigned personnel in which medical services are provided to a defined and limited class of patients according to their particular medical care needs.

Special care unit-a medical care unit in which there is appropriate equipment and a concentration of physicians, nurses, and others who have special skills and experience to provide optimal medical care for critically ill patients, or continuous care of patients in special diagnostic categories (ICU, CCU, NB-ICU).

Labor and delivery-a special unit in which there is appropriate equipment and a concentration of physicians, nurses, and others who have special skills and experience to provide services related to the labor and delivery of maternity patients.

Operating room-an area of a hospital equipped and staffed to provide facilities and personnel services for the performance of surgical procedures but not considered a unit or counted for inpatient census.

Events of Inpatient Hospitalization–the units of measurement in the census statistical system:

Inpatient hospitalization-a period in a person’s life during which he is an inpatient in a single hospital without interruption except by possible intervening leaves of absence.

Inpatient admission-the formal acceptance by a hospital of a patient who is to be provided with room, board, and continuous nursing service in an area of the hospital where patients generally stay at least overnight.

Hospital live birth-the complete expulsion or extraction from the mother, in a hospital facility, of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which, after such expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any other evidence of life, such as:  Beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached; heartbeats are to be distinguished from transient cardiac contractions, respirations from fleeting respiratory gasps.

Inpatient discharge-the termination of a period of inpatient hospitalization through the formal release of the inpatient by the hospital (includes leaving against medical advice (AMA) or death).

Fetal death-death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother, in a hospital facility, of a product of human conception, fetus and placenta, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy; the death is indicated by the fact that after such expulsion or extraction, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definitive movement of voluntary muscles.
Stillbirth-after 20 completed weeks of gestation
Abortion-before 20 completed weeks of gestation

Neonatal death-death of a liveborn infant within the first 27 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes of life.

Admission and Discharge or A&D-an inpatient hospitalization for which the patient is admitted and discharged during one 24-hour period (midnight to midnight) census day.

Leave of absence-a day or period of hours occurring after the admission or prior to the discharge of a hospital inpatient when they are no longer formally accepted by the hospital as an inpatient because they are absent from the facility for personal reasons (vs clinical reasons) and which are not counted if occurring over the census-taking hour.

Intrahospital transfer-a change in medical care unit for an inpatient.

Discharge transfer-the disposition of an inpatient to another health care institution at the time of discharge.

Swing beds-hospital-based acute care beds that may be used flexibly to serve as long-term care beds.

Inpatient census-the number of inpatients present at any one time (census).

Daily inpatient census-the number of inpatients present at the census-taking time each day plus any inpatients who were both admitted and discharged after the census-taking time the previous day.

Inpatient service day-a unit of measure denoting one 24-hour period of inpatient service (but appearing sometimes less than 24 hours and including A&Ds).

Total inpatient service days-the sum of all of the inpatient service days for each of the days in the period under consideration.

Computation of the Census

-Counting of patients in a status of admission at the same “time” every day.

-To census of the previous day, add admissions and intrahospital transfers in, subtract discharges and intrahospitals transfers out to get census today (Balancing!).

ASSIGNMENTS