>Math has never been my strong suite, I thought I'd see if someone could give me the right way to figure this out.
>
>For a given shift, I have to check to see if there are enough people assigned based off a state mandated ratio of patient to staff. So for this example the ratio is 4:1. One staff member for each 4 patients.
>
>Example:
>
>1. I know how many patients are scheduled: 19
>2. I know how many staff members are scheduled: 3
>3) and I know the ratio is 4:1
>
>So do I divide the staff members by the number of patients?:
> 3 / 19 = 0.15
>
>This seems like the right way, but how do I compare the result 0.15 to my ratio and determine if it meets or exceeds the desired ratio?
>
>Thanks
>Kirk

You can proceed in different ways.

Divide staff members by patients. 3/19 = 0.16, too few (minimum is 0.25 staff members per patient).

Divide patients by staff members - 19 patients divided by 3 staff members = 6.33 - too many patients per staff member (maximum is 4).

If you know the patients (19), multiply that by 1/4 - that gives you 4.75 required staff members. Compare this to the actual staff - 3 is less than the requirement.

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