Abstract: An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a real-time dashboard for proving a user within a department of medicine with real-time information regarding availability and demand for hospital beds throughout a department of medicine. The dashboard can be used to track patients from a point of entry to occupation of a bed. The dashboard also tracks needs from different points of admission such as the emergency department. The user can view the status of beds and the data can be further segmented by a level of care needed by the patient. The needs and preferences of different departments within the main department of medicine can be integrated with the availability and demand information provided by the dashboard. An alert system can also be implemented using the dashboard in order to allow the user to identify bottlenecks in the placement of patients in appropriate hospital beds.