NURS 6211: Finance and Economics in Health Care Delivery | Week 8

Six months have passed and your university clinic has been allowed to remain open. As you review the expenditures for those past six months, you are surprised to see how high certain costs have risen. As you reflect back, you are reminded of the flu epidemic that hit the university and affected many more students than you planned on needing services. Does this epidemic account for all of the increased costs? Could there be some other factors that contributed to the overspending?

This week you focus on key analytical tools used for determining the extent that different factors explain discrepancies from the original budget.

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Learning Objectives NURS 6211: Week 8: Variance Analysis Paper

Students will:

• Assess the importance of financial analytical tools in decision making
• Apply volume adjusted variance analysis to financial decision making

Learning Resources

Note: To access this Week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings 

Baker, J. J., Baker, R. W., & Dworkin, N. R.  (2018). Health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

• Chapter 18, “Variance Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis” (pp. 211-222)This chapter introduces variance analysis and how it can be used as a financial tool for determining the reasons behind budget overlays.

Zelman, W., McCue, M., & Glick, N. (2009). Financial management of health care organizations: An introduction to fundamental tools, concepts, and applications (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

• Chapter 11, “Responsibility Accounting” (pp. 469–497)This chapter explores the trend toward the decentralization of health care organizations and the challenges this presents. This chapter also describes responsibility centers, or organizational units intended to achieve specific tasks.

Cross,V. (2015). The role of variance analysis in businesses. Small Business by Demand Media. As retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-variance-analysis-businesses-22641.html

Garcia, M. (2015). What does an unfavorable variance indicate? Small Business by Demand Media. As retrieved from; http://smallbusiness.chron.com/unfavorable-variance-indicate-81570.html

Markgraf, B. (2015). What is budget variance analysis? Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/budget-variance-analysis-60250.html

Document: Week 8 Application Assignment Template

Document: Finance and Economics in Healthcare Delivery Transcript (PDF)

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2012). Variance analysis Baltimore, MD: Author.

In this video, William Ward discusses the importance of using variance analysis as a financial decision making tool. He uses a simple scenario to demonstrate how to conduct a variance analysis.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Week 8 Application Assignment Tutorial: Variance Analysis. Baltimore, MD: Author.

In this video, William Ward discusses the importance of using variance analysis as a financial decision making tool. He uses a simple scenario to demonstrate how to conduct a variance analysis.

Optional Resources

Hurlock J. (2012). Get to know Excel 2010: Create your first spreadsheet. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/get-to-know-excel-2010-create-your-first-spreadsheet-RZ101773335.aspx

Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc. (n.d.). Excel 2010. Retrieved from http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel201

Discussion

There is no graded Discussion Board assignment this week; however, a Week 8 optional discussion board is available for your voluntary participation this week.