Isolation Bed Requirement Calculator

Work out isolation bed requirement instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Isolation Bed Requirement Calculator

Applies Little's law to give average occupancy, then divides by the planning occupancy to leave headroom for variability.

Formula

Bed requirement

Average occupied beds = admissions per day x average length of stay; beds required = average occupied / planning occupancy

Worked example

With the default values below, Isolation Bed Requirement Calculator returns Isolation beds required of 188.2. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Admissions needing isolation per dayaccepts 0.1–5,000: 20
Average isolation stayaccepts 0.5–60 days: 8 days
Planning occupancyaccepts 40–100: 85

Results

Isolation beds required: 188.2
Average beds occupied: 160.0
Headroom above average occupancy: 28.2
Isolation bed days per week: 1,120

Step by step

1Values used
2Bed requirement
3Isolation beds required= 188.2
4Average beds occupied= 160.0
5Headroom above average occupancy= 28.2
6Isolation bed days per week= 1,120

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why plan below 100% occupancy?

Arrivals are random, so a unit run at full average occupancy will turn patients away frequently.

What occupancy is used in practice?

85% is the widely cited planning ceiling for acute beds, lower for units with high variability.