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Isolation Room Requirement Calculator

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

About Isolation Room Requirement Calculator

Applies Little's law to isolation demand: rooms needed equal the arrival rate multiplied by the average isolation period.

Formula

Rooms required

Rooms = new cases per week x average isolation days / 7

Worked example

With the default values below, Isolation Room Requirement Calculator returns Isolation rooms required of 8.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

New cases needing isolation per weekaccepts 1–500
8
Average isolation periodaccepts 1–60 days
7 days
Isolation rooms availableaccepts 0–200
5

Results

Isolation rooms required
8.00
Shortfall against availability
3.00
Isolation bed days per week
56
Utilisation of available rooms
160.0%

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Rooms required
  3. 3Isolation rooms required= 8.00
  4. 4Shortfall against availability= 3.00
  5. 5Isolation bed days per week= 56
  6. 6Utilisation of available rooms= 160.0

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 or fees or charges into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
  • Educational estimate only. Not a substitute for professional clinical judgement, and must not be used to make treatment or dosing decisions.

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

Educational estimate only. Not a substitute for professional clinical judgement, and must not be used to make treatment or dosing decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the average period dominate?

Halving the isolation period halves the rooms needed just as effectively as halving the case rate.

What if there is a shortfall?

Cohorting patients with the same organism is the usual mitigation when single rooms run out.

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