Setting Your Census
- Kyle Fillipo (Deactivated)
Analytics
Setting your census is an important function if you are using PPD budgeting for some or all of your budget groups. The platform uses census data to calculate total budgets, so keeping this data accurate and up to date will ensure the best spend control possible. It is a simple process and can be accomplished in a two ways.
Manually Setting Your Census
To begin setting your census manually, navigate to the census tool in the Management dropdown.
Once on the Census screen, you will see a list of all the facilities for which you can set the census. If you do not see a facility for which you think you should be able to set the census, contact your administrator.
Make sure that the “Week” filter is set to the current week. In this context, the week number refers to the week number of the year; e.g., the week containing January 1 is week 1. If you want to review previous weeks, you can add additional weeks to this filter. Multiple weeks will show as separate lines in the census area.
Enter the current patient census into the field that corresponds to the facility and week for which you are setting the census. This will simply be the number of patients under care at the facility.
At the bottom of the screen, you can choose two options:
On the left is the auto-populate option. This option automatically copies the census count from week-to-week and is very useful if your census is relatively stable.
On the right is the PPD calculation option. This uses your current budget (see “Setting your Budgets” for more information on dollar budgets) to calculate your PPD budget by dividing the dollar budget by your census. If you use your PPD to calculate your dollar budget, it is critical to make sure this is turned off. If this is turned on, changes in the census can lead to changes in your PPD budget.
Once you have set your options and your census, click save to apply your choices.
Uploading Your Census
It is also possible to upload your census data directly to the platform using a spreadsheet. This process can be started from the Census page by clicking the “Upload” tab.
From here, you can download a template with the required headers. Fill in the facility code, week number, and census count for each facility you wish to update.
Click the “Browse” button and select the file you created. If your file has column headers (names at the top of the three required columns), select the checkbox indicating this. You will have an opportunity to indicate which column matches with which piece of required information once you upload the file.
Once you have uploaded the file, indicate which column corresponds to the required fields. The screenshot below shows a file that includes headers.
Once the file is uploaded, you can use the same options indicated above to repopulate the census weekly or to calculate PPD from the census and dollar budget.