
    Given the current number of patients in the emergency room waiting area, determine the minimum staffing block size (which must be a power of 2) needed to maintain proper patient care coverage without understaffing. The staffing block size must be equal to or greater than the current patient count to ensure adequate healthcare delivery while following hospital resource allocation protocols.
    

    
def next_power_of_2(n):
    """
    Given the current number of patients in the emergency room waiting area, determine the minimum staffing block size (which must be a power of 2) needed to maintain proper patient care coverage without understaffing. The staffing block size must be equal to or greater than the current patient count to ensure adequate healthcare delivery while following hospital resource allocation protocols.
    

    """
def next_power_of_2(n):
    """
    Given the current number of patients in the emergency room waiting area, determine the minimum staffing block size (which must be a power of 2) needed to maintain proper patient care coverage without understaffing. The staffing block size must be equal to or greater than the current patient count to ensure adequate healthcare delivery while following hospital resource allocation protocols.
    

    """
    if n and (not n & n - 1):
        return n
    count = 0
    while n != 0:
        n >>= 1
        count += 1
    return 1 << count