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To determine the number of patients served by a hospital, the number of hospital beds is more appropriate than workload per health worker. To determine the capacity of a hospital, the number of beds can be multiplied by the average occupancy rate. This should then be multiplied by the number of working days per year to estimate the total number of bed-days available in one year.
1.3 Maximum Population Coverage Capacity
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Total population served = (# of health workers * number of patients seen in one average day * number of days worked per year) / (average number of outpatient visits per capita per year)
In the case of a hospital, this parameter can be summarized as:
Total population served = (number of beds * occupancy rate * # of working days in year) / (average number of inpatient admittances per capita per year * average length of stay).
2. Example of calculation of the maximum population coverage capacity for the Malawi sample data set
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This represents the average total population that can be served by a health center.
2.2 For hospitals
2.2.1 Primary level (district) hospitals
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This represents the average population served by a primary hospital.
2.2.2 Secondary level hospitals
We assumed an average of 331 beds, an average length of stay of 6.26 days, and 27.8% of total inpatient admissions to secondary level hospitals, resulting in the average population served as 505,539.
2.2.3 Tertiary level hospitals
We assumed an average of 986.5 beds, an average length of stay of 8.2 days, and 11% of total inpatient admissions to secondary level hospitals, resulting in the average population served at 2,875,233.
Note that these calculations assume an efficient referral system is in place.
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