Question

A hospital administrator wants to assign seven emergency room medical teams to three community outreach centers. The number of patients treated last week at each center is listed in the table to the right. Begin by giving each center one team. Use the​ Huntington-Hill method to decide how the administrator should assign the medical teams to these three centers.

Center A
26 patients
Center B
21 patients
Center C
39 patients
Total
86 patients

Answer 1

The final allocation, using the Huntington-Hill method is as follows:

• Center A: 3 teams
• Center B: 1 team
• Center C: 3 teams

How to allocate the teams ?

The Huntington-Hill method is a mathematical procedure used to allocate items to entities (in this case, community outreach centers) based on some criteria (in this case, the number of patients treated).

Calculate the initial priority values for each center using the Huntington-Hill formula:

Priority Value = (Number of Patients) / √(Number of Teams * (Number of Teams + 1))

For Center A: Priority Value = 26 / √(1 * 2)

= 18.44

For Center B: Priority Value = 21 / √(1 * 2)

= 14.85

For Center C: Priority Value = 39 / √(1 * 2)

= 27.71

Team Allocation: Center C (with the highest priority value of 13.42)

Center A: 26 / √(2 * 4)

= 9.22

Center B: 21 / √(2 * 4)

= 7.77

Center C: 39 / √(3 * 4)

= 13.42

Aall seven medical teams have been allocated to the centers. The allocation is:

Center A: 3 teams

Center B: 1 team

Center C: 3 teams