Bed Occupancy rate

What this data shows:

This measure shows the average number of beds occupied overnight that are under the care of consultants (with a mental health related specialty) as a proportion of all available beds. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommend an average occupancy rate of 85% (http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/OP79_forweb.pdf).

How the data is gathered:

The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommend an average occupancy rate of 85% http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/OP79_forweb.pdf

The rate will never be greater than 100% - this means that a Trust with a score of 100% had no empty beds during the month and every bed was occupied by a patient for every day of the month. Trusts whose occupancy was less than 100% had one or more empty beds on the ward at some point during the month.

Trusts report bed occupancy figures both including and excluding patients on leave (patients who have permission to leave the ward for a night or longer, perhaps to spend time at home with family as they move towards discharge). Figures here exclude leave, which means they only include patients who were physically on the ward.

Bed occupancy is normally calculated at midnight, i.e. patients who were in a bed at midnight on that day. Bed Occupancy shows the number of occupied bed days as a percentage of all available bed days during the period. Available bed days is calculated from the number of beds multiplied by the number of days in the period. For example, a 10 bedded ward would have 310 available bed days during the month of January (10 beds x 31 bed days each).

When the data is shown:

This indicator is scored using thresholds. Trusts with a bed occupancy rate between 75-90% get a Green Tick. Trusts with a bed occupancy rate between 0 -75% or between 90-95% get a Blue OK. Trusts with a bed occupancy rate above 95% get a Red Exclamation Mark. Rationale: The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends an 85% bed occupancy rate for mental health wards. For this reason, we have given a Green Tick to Trusts with bed occupancy rates around this figure, specifically between 75% - 90%. We have given a Blue OK to Trusts with bed occupancy rate between 90% - 95%, and a Red Exclamation mark for bed occupancy rates in excess of 95%. Trusts with a bed occupancy rate below 75% were not given a Green Tick rating, because these trusts may be maintaining an inefficiently high number of beds.

Data Source:

NHS Benchmarking Network - Numerator: number of occupied bed days, excluding leave, in adult acute beds during the month Denominator: number of available bed days in adult acute beds during the month

Data Period:

01/01/2016

Further Information:

These data are based on adult acute beds provided by the NHS Benchmarking Network based on a survey carried out on Use of Restraint. This collection is not currently routinely commissioned.