Hospital Sizes for Rural Areas When Patient Arrivals Are Poisson Distributed

This study applies the logic of queuing thcory to the availability of hospital services in a ruraloriented. multicounty planning district in northwestern lower Michigan. The seven hospitals in the area had 611 beds and provided services for 489 patient-days in 1 year. The study found that the seven hospitals apparently cooperate with one another. at least partially. in providing services. because if they operated independently they would not have sufficient capacity for peak loads. The observed number of beds. which is about 5.5 standard deviations above the expected number of arrivals. is almost certainly adequate for peak loads if the hospitals cooperate fully