How does Vitals calculate occupancy?

The way in which occupancy is calculated often varies widely throughout the Assisted Living industry. Variations in business rules among communities, management companies, and investor groups are contributing factors in calculating occupancy.

Through our many interactions with a wide range of AL providers, large and small, we have developed a general guideline for occupancy calculation used in our product.  These rules are the basis of how our suite of occupancy reports aggregate data. 

Rule #1 - Occupancy is calculated by Unit rather than Bed.

While count of available bed spaces is used by a number of providers for occupancy calculation, it is generally accepted that unit occupancy is the industry standard (i.e. if there is anyone in the unit, that unit is considered occupied).

Rule #2 - A unit can have a maximum occupancy of 1.

While a unit can have multiple beds (sometimes referred to as spaces) to accommodate multiple residents, the maximum occupancy will never be greater than 1.  The possible values for a units occupancy will be 1, .5, or 0.  These values are contrived through bed labeling in Vitals as follows.

Bed A - Refers to the Primary resident in a unit. 

Bed B - Refers to an additional resident in a unit who is considered a Companion.  The bed designation of B should be used when the space is an additional rentable space.

Bed S - Refers to a second person in a Private unit who must be documented for census(head count) purposes but provides no revenue in addition to the primary resident.  A husband/wife living situation is where this is most commonly used.

Here are some examples of the three types of unit configurations and how they impact occupancy.

Single bed A. 

With Resident - Occupancy of 1

Without Resident - Occupancy of 0

Bed A and B 

With Two Residents - Each count as .5 for an occupancy of 1

With One Resident A or B - Occupied bed counts as .5 while empty bed counts as 0 for a total occupancy of .5 for that unit.

Without Residents - Occupancy is 0

Bed A and S 

With Two Residents - Each count as .5 for an occupancy of 1

With One Resident A or S - Occupied bed counts as 1 while empty bed counts as 0 for a total occupancy of 1 for that unit.

Without Residents - Occupancy of 0

Rule #3 - Occupancy percentage calculation is based on Units using the following formula.

(# of Occupied Units * 100) / Total Units

Troubleshooting Occupancy Discrepancies

Each Vitals customer has access to a report called the Unit Count Analysis located under the Reports/Administration tab.  This detailed report displays all units and residents and contains detailed breakdown of how each unit affects the total occupancy count.