midnight census

An accounting of the number of residents living in a care facility at night. This number is the one used in the U.S. by the Centers for Medicare Services to determine how much reimbursement the facility will receive for the care of its residents. It may differ from the daytime census in that during the day residents may travel to or occupy more than one facility so that they can receive specialized care services.

References in periodicals archive ?

a revision of the midnight census to accurately reflect the needs of patients.

Stand together for safer staffing: Ramsay nurses and midwives call for safer staffing so they can deliver quality patient care

Once we solve midnight census, nursing care hours per patient day should be next

We can do better

We are determined to illustrate that nurse staffing is more than staffing ratios, midnight census, and the bottom line.

Nurse staffing: using evidence to create a pathway to excellence

The claim also seeks to replace the midnight census for nursing hours calculations with a system that accurately reflects patient numbers and provides patient "specialling" in addition to mandated nursing hours or ratios.

Strong vote for safe ratios: all but one of the NSWNMA public health system branches who voted have voted to pursue our claim to extend and improve safe nurse-to-patient ratios and a 2.5% pay increase

Under these conditions, the system of budgeting nursing services by midnight census evolved.

Analyzing fluctuating unit census for timely staffing intervention

Midnight census may be an outdated way of tracking work load as so many patients have early evening d/c and midnight census does not reflect work between 7 am-7 pm when most patients come and go.

Factors Influencing Staffing Needs

Microsoft Excel's graphing and charting tool was used to develop a graph for tracking daily midnight census variations throughout the pay period (see chart at right center of Figure 3).

Use of a Nursing Labor Computer Productivity Measurement Tool

USE OF MIDNIGHT CENSUS DATA--the NSWNMA will seek a better system than the current "midnight census" to calculate the occupancy of a ward or unit.

It's time to vote on the recommended Public Health System claim: our 2013 pay and conditions campaign in the Public Health System will seek to improve and extend the ratios won in our last campaign and a pay increase of 2.5% per year

Since staffing decisions are made on a per-shift basis, calculating HPPD based upon midnight census provided little decision-making support about variable staffing needs over a 24-hour period.

Caregiver-Patient Ratio: Capturing Census and Staffing Variability

The problem of the midnight census as the only count of patient utilization was exposed here.