If I follow, and I'm not sure I do fully -

=SUMIF(patient_injuries, injury_type, admin_hours)

I guess "patient_injuries" and "admin_hours" will be adjacent columns to the
right of patient names. Perhaps place the formula next to the cell that
"injury_type" refers to.

You might also want the following

=COUNTIF(patient_injuries,injury_type)

that'll give you the two results you need to give average adimin-time per
injury type.

Regards,
Peter T






"Jesse Blanchard" wrote in
message ...
The situation: I have a list of patient names in one column, a dropdown
list
with four text options (for their type of injury) in another, and another
dropdown list with a numerical value of how many administrative hours
spent
on them in another dropdown list.

I need a formula that will keep tally of the number of hours spent on a
patient according to their injury. So, in short, I need add the total
number
of hours for only those patients who have a specific text item selected in
the first dropdown list.

Thanks to all who reply to these things. I have learned a lot about excel
in
just two days thanks to your help.