>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

Kirk,

You are going at this backwards. You first need to cacculate the minimum number of staff required for 19 patients;

19/4=4.75 or rounded up to 5

Then you can compare that the number of staff scheduled. In your sample data you have 3 staff scheduled so you are short by 2 people.