Exam 14: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources

The finance department of the hospital has distributed information for the next budget cycle that includes a projected 0.19 inflation factor in the cost of water. If the hospital spent $285,000 on water last year, the projected cost of water for this year would be $_______.

The unit employs 35 FTEs (full-time equivalents) based on an 8-hour shift. The average benefits for these FTEs are 12 vacation days, 10 holidays, 6 sick days, and 4 personal days. Based on these figures, the FTE required per employee to replace benefit time is _____ FTE. Round to the nearest hundredth FTE.

A nurse manager writes the following

The nurse manager tells the staff that this year's budget numbers will not change, even if census drops over the rest of the year. How should the staff interpret this information?

The nurse manager of a critical care unit creates the operating budget with the knowledge that a minimum of two professional nurses must be paid per shift regardless of the patient census. Which group determines this standard?

The nurse manager identified that the census was higher than anticipated and the client acuity level was also high; however, there were fewer nursing hours paid. This variance is an example of which budgetary variance?

The nurse has received a commendable progress evaluation and will receive a 3 percent merit raise. The base salary for an RN is $48,000. Based on this information, the new projected base salary for this RN will be $_____.

The budget committee of a hospital is holding the first meeting of the budgetary cycle in two weeks. The finance department is preparing an information packet to be distributed to members. What statistical information should be included?

The nurse manager is creating the budget for the next fiscal year. Because the client census has been higher in the past year, more supplies were used. Which type of cost does this reflect?

A nursing executive is comparing the entire hospital financials for the month and notes that the medical laboratory's revenue is higher than environmental services. What is a possible explanation?