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Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH) faces skyrocketing nursing costs, all of which relate to its two biggest nursing service lines—the Emergency Room (ER) and the Operating Room (OR). SHH’s current cost system assigns total nursing costs to the ER and OR based on the number of patients serviced by each line. Total hospital annual nursing costs for these two lines are expected to equal $300,000. The table below shows expected patient volume for both lines.
After discussion with several experienced nurses, Jack Bauer (SHH’s accountant) decided that assigning nursing costs to the two service lines based on the number of times that nurses must check patients’ vital signs might more closely match the underlying use of costly hospital resources. Therefore, for comparative purposes, Jack decided to develop a second cost system that assigns total nursing costs to the ER and OR based on the number of times nurses check patients’ vital signs. This system is referred to as the “vital-signs costing system.” The earlier table also shows data for vital signs checks for lines.
In an effort to better plan for and control OR costs, SHH management asked Jack to calculate the flexible
Actual number of surgeries performed = 950
Standard number of nursing hours allowed for each OR surgery = 5
Actual number of OR nursing hours used = 5,000
Actual OR nursing costs = $190,000
What does each of the calculated variances suggest to Jack regarding actions that he should or should not take with respect to investigating and improving each variance? Also, briefly explain why the variances differ between the two cost systems.
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Chapter 10 Solutions
Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Business Decision-Making
- The Two Cost Systems Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH) faces skyrocketing nursing costs, all of which relate to its two biggest nursing service linesthe Emergency Room (ER) and the Operating Room (OR). SHHs current cost system assigns total nursing costs to the ER and OR based on the number of patients serviced by each line. Total hospital annual nursing costs for these two lines are expected to equal 300,000. The table below shows expected patient volume for both lines. Calculate the amount of nursing costs that the current cost system assigns to the ER and to the OR.arrow_forwardThe Two Cost Systems Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH) faces skyrocketing nursing costs, all of which relate to its two biggest nursing service linesthe Emergency Room (ER) and the Operating Room (OR). SHHs current cost system assigns total nursing costs to the ER and OR based on the number of patients serviced by each line. Total hospital annual nursing costs for these two lines are expected to equal 300,000. The table below shows expected patient volume for both lines. After discussion with several experienced nurses, Jack Bauer (SHHs accountant) decided that assigning nursing costs to the two service lines based on the number of times that nurses must check patients vital signs might more closely match the underlying use of costly hospital resources. Therefore, for comparative purposes, Jack decided to develop a second cost system that assigns total nursing costs to the ER and OR based on the number of times nurses check patients vital signs. This system is referred to as the vital-signs costing system. The earlier table also shows data for vital signs checks for lines. Calculate the amount of nursing costs that the vital-signs costing system assigns to the ER and to the OR.arrow_forwardGeneral Hospital, a not-for-profit acute care facility, has the following cost structure for its inpatient services Fixed $10,000,000 Variable cost per inpatient day 200 Charge (revenue) per inpatient day 1000 The hospital expects to have a patient load of 15,000 inpatient days next year. a. Construct the hospital’s base case projected P&L statement. b. What is the hospital’s breakeven point? c. What volume is required to provide a profit of $1,000,000? A profit of $500,000? d. Now, assume that 20 percent of the hospital’s inpatient days come from a managed care plan that requests a 25 percent discount from charges. Should the hospital agree to the discount proposal?arrow_forward
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