1. An apparatus for modifying and graphically displaying a health care facility's bed management and patient status information, the apparatus comprising: (a) a display for a health care facility; (b) an arrangement for producing a plurality of data cells for being viewed on the display, the cells having a plurality of modifiable attributes simultaneously relating to: (i) bed management information for a health care facility, including at least one of bed occupancy and bed availability for a health care facility; and (ii) patient status information for patients of a health care facility; and (c) a controller which modifies at least one of the attributes of at least one of the cells to convey said bed management and patient status information; and (d) an arrangement for producing a plurality of icons for being viewed on the display, said icons conveying said bed management and patient status information; (e) wherein said icons are adapted to display secondary information associated with each attribute of the icon; and (f) wherein said icons are configured to be continually updated based on information received from a patient admissions/discharge system of a health care facility via transactional messages.