The Two Cost Systems
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.
Calculate the amount of nursing costs that the vital-signs costing system assigns to the ER and to the OR.
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Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Business Decision-Making
- 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. In an effort to better plan for and control OR costs, SHH management asked Jack to calculate the flexible budget variance (i.e., flexible budget costs - actual costs) for OR nursing costs, including the price variance and efficiency variance. Given that Jack is interested in comparing the reported costs of both systems, he decided to prepare the requested OR variance analysis for both the current cost system and the vital-signs costing system. In addition, Jack chose to use each cost systems estimate of the cost per OR nursing hour as the standard cost per OR nursing hour. Jack collected the following additional information for use in preparing the flexible budget variance for both systems: 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.arrow_forwardThe Audiology Department at Randall Clinic offers many services to the clinic’s patients. The three most common, along with cost and utilization data, are as follows: Service Variable cost per service Annual Direct fixed Cost Annual number of visits Basic examination $5 $50,000 30,000 Advanced examination 7 30,000 1,500 Therapy section 10 40,000 500 What is the fee schedule for these services, assuming that the goal is to cover only variable and direct fixed costs? Assume that the Audiology Department is allocated $100,000 in total overhead by the clinic, and the department director has allocated $50,000 of this amount to the three services listed above. What is the fee schedule assuming that these overhead costs must be covered? (To answer this question, assume that the allocation of overhead costs to each service is made on the basis of number of visits.) Assume that these services must make a combined profit of $25,000. Now, what is the…arrow_forwardThe Housekeeping Services Department of Ruger Clinic, had $100,000 in direct costs during the year. Department Revenue HK Hours Adult Services $3,000,000 1,500 Pediatric Services $1,500,000 3,000 Other Services $ 500,000 500 Total $5,000,000 5,000 What is the value of the cost pool? Which of the two cost drivers is better? Patient service revenue or housekeeping hours? Why?arrow_forward
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