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The Dahlia Medical Center has 28 labor rooms, 15 combination labor and delivery rooms, and 3 delivery rooms. All of these facilities operate around the clock. Time spent in labor rooms varies from hours to days, with an average of about a day. The average uncomplicated delivery requires about one hour in the delivery room. The average time in a combination labor-delivery room is about 24 hours.

During an exceptionally busy three-day period, 102 healthy babies were born at Dahlia Medical Center. 70 babies were born in separate labor and delivery rooms and 32 were born in combined labor and delivery rooms. Which of the facilities (labor rooms, combination labor and delivery rooms, or delivery rooms) had the greatest utilization rate?

1 Answer

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Final answer:

After calculating the total available hours and actual used hours for labor rooms, combination rooms, and delivery rooms at Dahlia Medical Center, it was determined that the labor rooms had the highest utilization rate of 83.3% during a busy three-day period.

Step-by-step explanation:

First, we must determine the total available room hours for each facility over the three-day period. There are 28 labor rooms, 15 combination labor and delivery rooms, and 3 delivery rooms. Since these facilities operate 24 hours a day, we can calculate the total room hours as follows:

  • Labor rooms: 28 rooms × 24 hours/day × 3 days = 2016 room hours
  • Combination rooms: 15 rooms × 24 hours/day × 3 days = 1080 room hours
  • Delivery rooms: 3 rooms × 24 hours/day × 3 days = 216 room hours

Next, we examine the actual usage. Since the average time in a labor room is about a day per patient, and there were 70 uses of separate labor and delivery rooms, we can estimate:

  • Labor rooms: 70 patients × 24 hours/patient = 1680 room hours
  • Delivery rooms: 70 patients × 1 hour/patient = 70 room hours
  • Combination rooms: 32 patients × 24 hours/patient = 768 room hours

To find the utilization rate, we divide the used hours by the total available hours:

  • Labor room utilization: 1680 room hours / 2016 total hours = 0.833 or 83.3%
  • Delivery room utilization: 70 room hours / 216 total hours = 0.324 or 32.4%
  • Combination room utilization: 768 hours / 1080 total hours = 0.711 or 71.1%

Based on the calculations, the labor rooms had the greatest utilization rate at 83.3% during the exceptionally busy three-day period.

User David Dossot
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