Analyzing the patient load on the hospitals in a metropolitan area

This research documents the patient load trends on the Richmond metropolitan hospitals. The work is based on applying systems and information engineering analyses to data that hospitals routinely collect and store for billing their patients. The research is motivated by two recent events in the Richmond VA metropolitan area. On January 9, 2001 and on January 8, 2003, all of the metropolitan hospitals reached their maximum patient capacity in rapid succession. During these events, patients inbound via ambulance or rescue squad to a hospital that was full were diverted to a hospital with remaining capacity. Patient data for 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 for metropolitan Richmond hospitals are analyzed to characterize the patient load on these hospitals. This type of data analysis has not been reported previously in the literature.