MEDICAL MATH 75 word problems

AVERAGES
1. Bill Board is trying to reduce his sodium intake to an average of 2300 mg. He records
his sodium intake for 4 days. The amounts are 2150 mg, 3005 mg, 2700 mg, and 2315
mg. What is the patient’s average daily intake of sodium for those 4 days? What would
his 5th day sodium intake need to be to drop him below an average of 2300 mg?

2. Cherri Pitts brings in her morning blood sugar numbers over the last week for you to
look at. They were 102 mg/dl, 134 mg/dl, 106 mg/dl, 144 mg/dl, 199mg/dl, 98 mg/dl and
109mg/dl. What is her average weekly blood sugar? Her goal was to be under 120
mg/dl. She was told her glucometer could have an error of +/- 10%. If she accounts for
this possible error, would it put her under her goal?

3. Claire Annette ran several blood tests this morning. She completed 13 tests during the
first hour, 19 test during the second hour, 14 tests during the third hour and 16 tests
during the fourth hour. What is the average number of tests she completed in 1 hour?
If she works for 3 more hours this afternoon, about how many tests can we expect her
to complete?

4. Constance Noring has been told to keep her caloric intake to an average of 1500
calories. So far this week she has recorded the following: Monday-1330 Tuesday-1560
Wednesday-1490 Thursday- 1580 Friday-1440 Saturday 1550. So far on Sunday she
has eaten 1460 calories. She wants a snack before bed but wants to stay under her
1500 calorie goal for the week. Which of the following items could she eat and still stay
under?
• ¾ cup of yogurt: 75 calories
• Handful of almonds: 162 calories
• Peanut Butter sandwich: 327 calories

5. Athletic tape costs $80 for 32 rolls. It takes ½ of a roll to tape an ankle. You estimate
that 9 of your athletes will need their ankle taped for every game that season (10
games). What do you estimate the total cost to be to tape ankles for the full season?

RATIOS
6. In your department, 4 out of 16 patients need special diabetic diets. What is the ratio of
special diabetic diets to over-all diets reduced to the lowest terms?
The next day, 8 additional patients were admitted. Using the ratios determined from the
day before, predict how many additional diabetic diets should you order.
7. On the 2nd floor, 18 of the nurses have less than 10 years of experience and 6 have
more than 10 years of experience. What is the ratio of more experienced nurses to total
nurses working on the 2nd floor reduced to lowest terms? The third floor has 16 nurses
working. If you wanted to maintain the same ratio of the 2nd floor, how many of the
nurses would have more than 10 years of experience?

8. You are able to complete 5 examinations in 4 hours. How many complete examinations
can you finish in 7 hours?
If you worked 8-hour days, how many complete exams could you complete in a 5-day
work week?

9. Your diabetic patient normally drinks a shake each morning. This morning her blood
sugar is a bit low and he needs a little more. You suggest she increase her intake this
morning. Normally for one serving, she puts 2 ½ scoops of powder per 8 oz of water.
Today, however, you suggest she increase it to 12 oz. of water, how much powder does
she need to use?
If she has 15 scoops of powder left in her jar, how many 12 oz. shakes could she
make?

10. Duane Pipe has worked at the hospital 21 out of 30 days this month. What is his ratio
of days worked to days not worked reduced to lowest terms? In order to receive full-
time benefits, he must work 3/4ths of the month or more. Did he meet the
requirements?

11. Dr. Jean Pool has seen 8 out of 24 of her patients today. What is her ratio of patients
seen to patients not seen reduced to lowest terms? What percent of patients does she
have remaining to see?

12. Norma Leigh created a dental mold for a patient. She must add 45 ml of water for every
100 g of plaster. How much water should she add if she has 250 g of plaster? If she
has to make 4 separate batches, how much water total will she need in Liters?

13. You were asked to send home a nurse if the ratio of nurses to patients was less that
1:4. Currently, there are 8 nurses working and 24 patients. Should you send home any
nurses?

14. After her patient threw up on the floor, Rose Gardner must sanitize the floor with a
bleach solution. She must create a solution of 16 parts water to 1-part bleach. She has
4 liters of water. How much bleach should she add?
The only measuring cup she has is a cup. How many cups would she add? (1 liter =
4.227 cups)
 PERCENTAGES
15. Your patient was told to drop her weight by 20%. She weighs 220 lbs. How many
pounds should she lose? What should her new weight be?

16. You have a patient that needs to gain weight. She currently eats 1400 calories per day.
You advise her to increase her calorie intake by 15%. What would her new calorie goal
be per day? How many calories total will that be in a week?

17. Sam Sung’s maximum heart rate is 204. He was told to exercise at 75-85% of that
heart rate. What should his exercise heart rate range be?

18. Kash Register has been told to eat 1,800 calories per day. He was told that 20% of the
calories should be fat, 30% of the calories should be protein and 50% of the calories
should be carbohydrates. What are the number of calories he should have for fat,
protein and carbohydrates?

19. Krystal Ball’s pulse rate is 30% higher than its normal rate of 70bpm. What is her pulse
rate? After lying down it decreased 20%. What is her heart rate now?

20. Your patient’s IV bag holds 1000 ml of normal saline. And hour later, you see that 750
ml is left. What percentage of the saline has been infused (used)? What percent do
you expect to be remaining two hours after that?

21. Fred tripped, fell and received a large cut on his forehead. The doctor concluded that
he lost about 8% of his blood volume from all the bleeding. If Brandon has 5.2 liters of
blood, how many liters did he lose? Death typically occurs once a person has lost 40%
of their blood. How much more blood would he had to have lost to be at 40%?

METRIC CONVERSIONS/DOSAGE CALCULATIONS

22. Your patient needs 1.2 g of their medication. The pills come in 800 mg. How many pills
should you give them?
If they take this dosage two times a day, how many pills will they have taken after one
full week?

23. Your patient has been prescribed 0.5g of Imipramine HCL. You know he will need this
amount 3 times today and tomorrow. The pills come in 25mg. How many pills total will
he be taking? After those 2 days, he will drop to taking it just 2 times a day for the
following 2 days, and then just once per day for the 2 days following that. How many
pills will he be taking after the 6 full days?
24. Your patient is allowed to take up to 2.6g of Percocet per day. The Percocet is
available in capsules of 325 mg. How many capsules is she allowed to have in a day?
If she only took 5 pills, how many total grams did she take? What percent does she
have remaining?

25. The following medications have been ordered for your patient:
• Azulfidine 1.5 g (The available tablets are 500 mg each)
• Premarin 1.25 mg (The available tablet strength is 625 mcg)
• Inderal 90 mg (The available dosage is a scored 60mg tablet)
How many total pills will he have to take?

26. Dymelor 1.0 g has been ordered every six hours. The available tablets are 500 mg each.
How many tablets will you give during a 24-hour period?
The following day the order was changed to every 8 hours. How many tablets will you
give during a 24-hour period?

27. You are to give your patient 0.75 g of Toprol twice per day. If the tablets come in
250 mg, how many tablets will you administer during a full week?

28. It is ordered for your patient to take a full dose of their Atenolol in the morning and then
half the dose in the afternoon. A full dose is 1500 mg. If the tablets come in 0.5 g, how
many pills will they have the full day?

Use this guideline for the following questions:

For Acetaminophen (Tylenol): Dosage= 15mg per kg of body weight every 4
hours
For Ibuprofen (Advil): Dosage = 10mg per kilogram of body weight every 4 hours

29. Your 5-year-old patient needs to take a dose of Tylenol. She weighs 31 lbs. (round to
the nearest kg). How many mg should you advise her mother to give her?

30. A mother calls and says her child is running fever. The doctor suggests she give him
Ibuprofen. The boy weighs 46 lbs. How much should you advise her to give him?

31. A 26 lb. girl is prescribed Tylenol for pain after a minor surgery. Using the guidelines,
what would be the maximum amount of medication she would take in one day?

32. Your patient, a young boy, is running a high fever. In order to reduce it quickly, the
doctor suggest he take a dose of Ibuprofen followed by a dose of Tylenol 4 hours later.
He weighs 33 lbs. What will his dose of Ibuprofen and Tylenol be?
33. 1 tsp (5ml) of children's liquid contains 160 mg of acetaminophen. How many
teaspoons would a 47 lb. child take? (Round to the nearest tsp)

34. Your patient has an order to be injected with 2 grams of medication. One milliliter of
liquid contains 100 milligrams of medication. How many milliliters should be injected into
the patient?
An hour later, another 3 grams are injected. How much medication is left in the vial?

MILITARY TIME
35. Your patient’s input and output must be charted every two hours. Starting at 2:15 pm,
what would be the next 6 times?

36. You read the following information on a patient’s chart: “Pt. received medication at
1805”. What time did the patient get their medication?
If the patient had his procedure 2 ½ hours prior to that, what time was his procedure in
military time?

37. Your patient was just hooked up to an E-stim machine and will receive treatment for 20
minutes. If he started the treatment at 1:55 p.m., write in military time the starting and
ending times.

38. Your patient needs medication administered every 16 hours. Starting with today’s date,
write the date and times of the next 4 times it will be administered starting at 9:10 a.m.

39. The IV bag of your patient contains 500 ml of fluid. It is set at a rate of 125 cc/hr. If you
start the fluids at 5:30 pm, when should the bag be empty in military time?

BODY MASS INDEX/BODY SURFACE AREA

ℎ𝑡(𝑐𝑚)×𝑤𝑡(𝑘𝑔)
BSA(m2) = √ BMI=𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡(𝑘𝑔)/𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡(𝑚)2
3600

40. You just measured your patient’s height and weight. He weighed in at 178 lbs and was
5 feet 11 inches. What is his weight in kg?
What is his height in m? Using the formula
BMI= (Weight in kg)/(Height in m)2, what is his
BMI?

41. Your patient weighs 220lbs. and is 5’6”. What

is their BMI and what category do they fall in?

42. Your patient weighs 134lbs. and is 6’0”. What is their BMI and what category do they
fall in?
43. Cardiac Index is defined as cardiac output divided by body surface area. Calculate the
cardiac index of your patient to see if they are in normal range.
Normal range is 2.5-4.0 L/min/m2
Mr. Jim Shorts: Height: 6’2” Weight: 210 lbs. Cardiac Output: 4.3L/m

44. You have prescribed a dosage of 500mg/m of a drug to a 36-month-old boy. The boy
weights 33 Lbs. and is 33 Inches tall. Calculate the BSA and determine what will the
dosage be.

COMBINATION
45. Billy Bob was asked to keep his diet to under 2,000 calories per day. This is his food
diary:
Day one: 2,500 calories
Day two: 1,600 calories
Day three: 1,950 calories
Day four: 2,100 calories
Day five: 1,900 calories
Day six: 2,900 calories
Day seven: 1,800 calories.
What were his average calories for the week? What percent of the time did he go
above his 2,000 calories?

46. Dr. Calypso works in the hospital and is currently under investigation for negligence.
She is thought to be an incompetent doctor, so an investigator followed her around
taking notes about what she did all day. Below is a copy of some of the work she has
accomplished today. Decide whether or not her work is accurate and correct her
mistakes:
Patient A: Dr. Calypso was to give Patient A 800 mg of Clinoril. The tablets were
labeled 0.2 g. Dr. White gave the patient 3 tablets.
Patient C: Patient C’s chart had instructions to not allow his heart rate to exceed 20%
of his resting rate of 80 bpm. When his heart rate reached 100 bpm, Dr. Calypso
ordered the patient to be given Toprol (a drug to lower his heart rate). Did the patient
go 20% above his heart rate?
Patient C: Patient D was to be given a ratio strength of a medication of 1ml of the drug
for every 10 ml of solution. Dr. Calypso was to give the patient 5ml of the drug, so she
put it in a solution of 500ml of solution.
What should the amount of solution be?

47. Dr. Long was asked to order some supplies for her office. She was told to not spend
more than 15% of the budget. Her budget was $6,260. She bought the following items:
Gloves: $122; Lancets: $43; Glucometer:$389; New fancy lab coat: $273; Stethoscope:
$109. There was an 8% tax on total of these items.
How much did Dr. Long spend? Did she go over?
 FILO
48. The nutrition department is wanting to produce and sell healthy cookbooks. You had 3
batches throughout the year produced:
Batch 1: Quantity 2,000 pieces, cost to produce $8000
Batch 2: Quantity 1500 pieces, cost to produce $7000
Batch 3: Quantity 1700 pieces, cost to produce $7700
Calculate the cost of the cookbooks for each batch. What was the average cost per
book for the year? If you sold all of the cookbooks and charged $8.00, what was your
profit?

49. You needed to purchase EKG electrodes for your Cardiac Rehab Facility. The following
are your purchases for the year:
Mar. 01:; 400 boxes @ $18 per unit.
Mar. 12: 600 boxes @ $22 per unit.
Oct. 17: 800 boxes @ $20 per unit.
Dec. 15: 200 boxes @ $24 per unit.
How much total did you spend for the year?
What was the average amount of one box of electrodes?

VITAL SIGNS
50. You take a 10-second pulse rate on the following patients:
Patient 1: 12 beats in 10 seconds
Patient 2: 14 beats in 10 seconds
Patient 3: 9 beats in 10 seconds
Patient 4: 16 beats in 10 seconds
Calculate the bpm in each of the patients.

51. You take a 15 second pulse rate on a patient before his graded exercise test on the
treadmill at 17 beats in 15 seconds. During the treadmill test it rose to 32 beats in 15
seconds. How many beats did it increase?
After a minute of rest, it had dropped 40%. What was his heartrate after a minute of
rest? (round to the nearest whole number)

52. A normal pulse pressure is between 40-60mmHg. Write the pulse pressures of the
following patients and indicate if they are “high” “normal” or “low”. (pulse pressure=
systolic-diastolic)
Patient 1: 132/68
Patient 2: 116/78
Patient 3: 102/88
Patient 4: 144/90
Patient 5: 120/82

53. Your patient reports their pain as an 8/10. An hour later she reported it as a 5/10. What
percent did it decrease in one hour? An hour later she was at a 2/10. What percent did
it decrease from 5/10?

54. What would the following blood pressures be as described?

 patient 1: two lines above the 120 / 7 lines above the 60.
patient 2: 3 lines below the 140 / 1 line over the 80
patient 3: 9 lines above the 140 / 3 lines below the 100

55. You gave your patient the goal to reduce her blood pressure by 10%. Her normal blood
pressure was running 150/90. During her most recent visit, it was measured at 130/80.
Did she meet her goal?
If she reduced it another 10%, what would her new average blood pressure be?

GROWTH
56. Infant are expected to lose 7-10% of their birth weight while in the hospital following
delivery. Predict the normal discharge weight ranges for an infant that is 7lbs. 6oz.
(reminder... there are16 ounces in a pound)

57. You are concerned about head circumference growth in your infant patient. You took
the following measurements during her first year of life. What was the percent growth
for each stage?
Birth:35.8 cm
3 months: 41.7 cm
6 months:44.0 cm
1 year: 46.4 cm

58. You have fraternal twin boys as patients. From age 2-3, the expected growth rate is 8-
9%. Below are the heights of the boys at age 2 and age 3. Determine if they are within
range.
Boy A: 2-year height: 34.5 inches; 3-year height:37.5 inches
Boy B: 2-year height: 34.0 inches; 3-year height:36.0 inches

HOMEOSTASIS
59. The following data was collected on a patient. Perform the calculations to see if they
are still in normal range:
Baseline temperature: 9:40am: 99.1F; 11:45am: increase of 3%
Fasting blood sugar: 9:40am: 102mmol/dl; 11:45am: decrease of 18%
Oxygen saturation: 9:40am: 91%; 11:45am: decrease of 2%
Resting Heart rate: 9:41am: 84bpm; 11:45am: increase of 5%
Systolic blood pressure: 9:41am: 138mmHg; 11:45am: increase of 8%

ROMAN NUMERALS:
60. A medical assistant does an inventory of file folders and
counts CCLX beige folders,
CDXLVI yellow folders, CCCXXXIX blue folders, and
MCMLXXXIII white folders.
What is the total number of file folders in Roman numerals?
What is the total number of file folders in Arabic number?

61. The cornerstone of a hospital shows the date when the

hospital was built as MCMXLVII. What year was the hospital
built? Write the current year in Roman numerals.
 GEOMETRY
62. You’ve been tasked with cleaning the floor of an area in the hospital. The room is
rectangular space that is 30 feet by 20 feet. There is a large section in the middle that
contains 2 large cabinets that are 7 feet by 6 feet. You have enough cleaning solution
to cover an area that is 500 feet2. Calculate the area and determine if you have enough
solution.

63. You were asked to make an ice bath to ice your patient’s ankle. The instructions were
to add 1 cup of ice for each cubic foot of water. The cylindrical bucket you have is 3
feet tall with a 1 ½ foot opening (diameter). How many cups of ice should you add?

EKG/LAB
64. If your patient is in a bigeminal PVC pattern with a rate of 70bpm, how many PVC’s
could you expect to occur in one full minute?
What if they were in a trigeminal PVC pattern?

65. Calculate the cholesterol ratios for the following and determine if they are high or in
normal range: (total cholesterol/HDL) (normal range: 3.5:1 or less)
Total cholesterol: 200mg/dL HDL: 50mg/dL
Total cholesterol: 175mg/dL HDL: 58mg/dL
Total cholesterol: 128mg/dL HDL: 30mg/dl

66. Calculate the LDL values for the following patients using the formula and determine if it
𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑦𝑙𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑠
is in normal range. 𝐿𝐷𝐿 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑙 − 𝐻𝐷𝐿 − ( )
5
Normal LDL: less than 100mg/dL
Total Cholesterol=200mg/dL HDL: 50mg/dL Triglycerides: 160mgdL
Total cholesterol: 175mg/dL HDL: 58mg/dL Triglycerides: 135mg/dL
Total cholesterol: 128mg/dL HDL: 30mg/dl Triglycerides: 110 mg/dL

67. You set a goal for your post-op ACL patient to increase their knee flexion by 3% after 2
weeks. Their angle at that time was 120 degrees. What should it be by 2 week in order
to reach their goal? (round to the nearest degree)
Assume they reached 3% after 2 weeks. What would the new goal be if you wanted
another 15% increase in another 2 weeks? If normal knee flexion is 130 degrees, would
they be back to normal at this time?

BRAIN TEASERS
68. There are 600 surgeons. 5% of the surgeons are wearing one surgical glove. Of the
other 95% of surgeons, half wear two gloves and the other half wear none. How many
total gloves are being worn in this club?

69. At the hospital ER there are a certain number of beds and a certain number of patients.
How many beds and patients are there if both the following statements are true: 1. If
each patient is in one bed, one patient doesn't get a bed. 2. If two patients share a bed,
there is one patient left out.
70. Your patient needs to perform his exercises for nine minutes, but all you have is two
hourglasses - one four-minute timer and one seven-minute timer, how can you measure
nine minutes?

71. Two fathers and two sons went in to the hospital together to have surgeries, but only 3
surgeries were done. If they all had successful surgeries, how was only 3 performed?

72. The Physical Therapist asks you to grab the 10lb. weight off the shelf. She tells you it’s
the 4th from the left and the 6th from the right. How many weights are on the shelf?

73. A man dies of old age and his daughter comments that it was his “25th” birthday that he
died on. How is this possible?

74. Your patient needs a pair of slipper socks but the drawer with the socks got completely
disorganized. There are 10 blue socks and 10 red socks all mixed together. How many
socks would you have to pull out without looking to guarantee a matched pair?

75. You ask your young patient her age and she tells you she was 10 on her last birthday
and will be 12 on her next birthday. How is this possible?