Utica College Productivity Measures and Variance Columns Response
Description
Discussion #7 Productivity Analysis
Questions 1& 2
Month
Actual Patient Days
Budgeted Patient Days
Actual Nursing Hours
Budgeted Nursing Hours
Productivity Measures
Variance
January
1,116
1,116
10,965
10,044
10
0
February
1,030
1,008
10,209
9,074
10
0
March
974
896
8,060
8,064
8
0
April
876
960
8,560
8,640
9.7
0
May
930
868
7,739
7,812
8.3
0
June
864
840
7,553
7,560
8.7
0
July
942
868
7,840
7,812
8.3
0
August
831
868
7,993
7,812
9.6
0
September
888
840
7,868
7,560
8.8
0
October
967
868
8,013
7,812
8.2
0
November
996
960
8,642
8,640
8.6
0
December
1,091
896
10,238
8,064
9.3
0
Total
11,505
10,988
103,680
98,894
107.5
0
3. Discuss the trends you see in this data from month to month, but also for each quarter and the overall year.
The trends for this unit month to month are very similar. The variance trends are all the same if the productivity standard is 9 hours per patient day. The trend for actual patient days varies month-to-month. The winter months are higher for actual patient days which makes sense because patients tend to have sicker days in the winter. The first and fourth quarter have higher actual patient days and actual nursing hours. The actual nursing hours reflect the higher patient days due to the amount of nursing hours needed to care for the higher number of patients. The overall year trend seems to be fairly, equal between actual and budgeted patient days and nursing hours.
4. How can this information be used by the nurse manager to budget more efficiently for the upcoming year? What are your suggestions for change?
This information can be used for the nurse manager of this unit to budget more efficiently for the upcoming year by budgeting more nursing hours to cover for the increase of patient days. This will cut down on overtime for the nurses on this unit. If nurses are not needed for particular shifts, some nurses can get canceled, pushed-back or flexed, and called in if needed to cover the patient load.
5. If you were the nursing manager, what other information might you request to better calculate productivity in your unit?
As a nursing manager I would request, and take into consideration, the education levels of nurses on my unit, the amount of monthly patient returns to inpatient status, the nurses on the unit that are full-time, part-time, prn, and agency. Patient outcome and quality patient care should be considered when scheduling nursing staff and budgeting nursing hours. The amount of qualified nursing staff caring for patients, is correlated with patient outcomes, patient mortality, and positive patient rescue (Paulsen, 2018). Productivity is important for all units, however, patient safety and patient outcomes are also important.
References
Paulsen, R.A. (2018). Taking nurse staffing research to the unit level. Nursing Management,
49(7), 42-48. doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000538915.53159.b5
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