Health care capacity interactive dashboard

The dashboard provides capacity data for hospitals across the state. You can compare data about hospital capacity and can make informed decisions, such as choosing facilities that are convenient and may be less capacity strained.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) health care capacity interactive dashboard shows hospital-based staffing and the number of patient beds that are filled through the end of the prior month. You can pick a hospital, learn about its licensed capacity through the end of the prior month, and compare it to other hospitals nearby within a 30-minute drive*. You can also check how busy emergency departments are over the same time period. 

*The 30-minute drive refers to the 30-minute drive from the chosen hospital. The 30 minute drive times are calculated using average traffic and road conditions. Traffic, road closures, weather, and other factors can change over time and will impact which hospitals are reachable within 30 minutes. Hospital locations are from MassGIS.

Interactive data dashboard

The dashboard is updated by 5:00 pm on the third Wednesday of each month. 

You can find the quick start guide below the dashboard. If you are having difficulty using the dashboard on a mobile or tablet device, you may access this dashboard in full screen.

Download the data:

The data used in the dashboard are available for download (Excel) with data from January of the past year through the end of the previous month. 

Download the data file 

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Dashboard overview

The dashboard home page provides the capacity overview of your chosen hospital and allows you to further explore the data on 1) available and occupied inpatient beds and 2) emergency department visits.

1. The inpatient beds page shows a graph of beds broken down by the type of care provided: adult medical/surgical, adult intensive care unit (ICU), pediatric medical/surgical, and pediatric intensive care unit. It also shows a chart of average daily occupied medical/surgical beds by month and compares the yearly average with the previous year at the selected hospital and compared to hospitals within a 30-minute drive time radius.  
2. The emergency department (ED) visits page shows the number of ED visits at your chosen hospital and a chart of ED visits year over year by month compared to hospitals within a 30-minute drive time radius. 

Quick start guide

Steps to find out the average number of licensed inpatient beds at your chosen hospital: 

1. On the dashboard home page, under "Choose a hospital", choose or type the name of the hospital to begin a search.
2. Your chosen hospital and other hospitals within a 30-minute drive will show on the screen.
3. Use the "Explore more data on hospital beds" button to go to the next page.
4. Filter the data by:
   • Selecting a bed type:
     • Adult Medical/Surgical
     • Adult ICU
     • Pediatric
     • Pediatric ICU
   • Choosing to include surge beds or not:
     • Surge beds not included
     • Surge beds included
5. The average number of beds at your chosen hospital will show on the graph. You can interact with the graph to access a breakdown of beds by type and by month. 
6. You can also learn about the average daily occupied beds for the selected bed type by month with year over year change:
   • Select the months in the "show months of" dropdown menu
   • The filtered results will show on the screen. Interact with the graph and the map for details

Note: To visit a different page or return to the home page, use the “Return to the main page” button. 

Steps to find out the average number of emergency department visits at your chosen hospital: 

1. On the dashboard home page, under "Choose a hospital", choose or type the name of the hospital to begin a search.
2. Your chosen hospital and other hospitals within a 30-minute drive will show on the screen.
3. Use the "Explore more data on emergency departments" button to go to the next page.
4. Filter the data by month and select one of the following metrics:
   • Total number of visits
   • Percent of visits that discontinued care
   • Average length of stay 
5. The result will show on the screen. Interact with the graph to get the details.
6. To generate data for a year over year comparison, check the applicable month(s) from the "show months of" dropdown menu. 

Note: To visit a different page or return to the home page, use the “Return to the main page” button. 

If you have any questions, please contact us at [e-mail]. You can also leave your comment using the Help Us Improve comment box below. 

Additional Resources

Health care facilities in Massachusetts | DPH

Find information about licensed or certified health care facilities | DPH

What is syndromic surveillance? | CDC

How we conduct syndromic surveillance | CDC