HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

The following questions are designed to test your ability to apply the concepts and techniques covered in the course. Answer them as fully as possible, identifying each by number. Each answer should be 3-4 pages in length. Every question counts equally toward the exam grade.

Once you have completed the exam, submit it to your instructor using the Assignment Submission Form on the course homepage.

What would you do in the following situations?

1. You walk into a new job and find that there are hundreds of accounts payable checks sitting in drawers. At this point you have no idea how much cash is available and you must meet a payroll of $100,000 in 2 days. Where would you start? What would you do?

1. You are faced with the last days of a computer conversion and you are receiving calls that people have paid their bills, yet were not being credited for the payments. You later find no copies of receipts, yet the patients sent you copies of theirs. You know there was theft. How do you address it? How do you prove it? There were 4 people who had signed receipts. The total stolen was $10,000. Do you report it? Do you handle it yourself?

1. Imagine that you are the administrator of a nonprofit community hospital. You have been approached by medical staff from two different departments (for example, pediatrics and radiation therapy) who are equally convinced that their respective areas of specialty need major new pieces of high technology capital equipment that will greatly enhance patient care in each department. Knowing your hospital has limited resources for capital expenditures, what information do you need to gather? Once you have gathered this information, how will you go about deciding which department, if either, should get the equipment?

4. You are the nursing supervisor responsible for general medical/surgical units consisting of 50 beds. For the first time the chief financial officer has asked you to prepare a budget for your area of responsibility. Describe the process you will use to accomplish this task, including the information you will need, and the important steps in the process.