NUR4590 / NUR 4590 | Professional Identity of the Nurse Leader
Final Exam Questions
1. An example of an initiative that may reduce total
... [Show More] healthcare costs would be:
a. offering nurse practitioner-led clinics that educate parents about non-pharmacologic strategies for managing ear infections.
b. educating seniors about the comparative costs of medications that are prescribed to them.
c. lowering copayments for prescription drugs for seniors.
d. advocating for more readily available MRI services to ensure early diagnosis.
2. Which of the following factors is not implicated in rising healthcare costs?
a. Rising expectations of consumers for cure and care
b. Marketing of drugs to consumers
c. Large administrative staffs to process medical billings
d. Rising Medicare costs
3. Physicians in a small urban hospital are reluctant to discharge older adult patients because many of the patients lack private insurance and the resources to travel distances for follow-up care. The hospital administration pressures the physicians to discharge patients sooner and to be more consistent with the number of hospitalization days specified within the DRGs. Which of the following would most likely prompt the action of administrators?
a. The hospital is incurring a deficit related to a gap between the PPS and the DRGs and costs of care.
b. Local home care services are expressing concern about the increased acuity of patients being discharged into their care.
c. The resource-based relative scale for physicians does not account for the increased length of stay.
d. Acute care patients are being denied entry to the hospital because of the increased stay of patients.
4. Because of the complexity of reimbursement systems and its implications for the services available to patients, the nurse has a key role in:
a. advocacy for patients with regard to services required and services utilized.
b. increasing the volume of services and decreasing the number of patients served.
c. accomplishing more with each visit and decreasing the volume of services used.
d. decreasing the volume of services used and the number of return visits.
5. In preparing her budget, a nurse manager determines that she needs to budget for six FTE RN positions in the upcoming year. Based on a 40-hour week, this means that the nurse manager has determined that the budget will provide for _____ hours.
a. 12,480 productive
b. 10,820 productive
c. 12,480 paid
d. 10,800 patient care
Rat:
From the information given, it is not possible to determine how many non-productive hrs (vacation, holiday, sick time, education) the nurse manager has accounted for in her budget calculations and therefore whether the total number of hours (40 hours x 52 weeks x 6 staff =12,480 paid hrs) is productive (paid time that is worked) or non-productive hrs. 12,480accurately reflects the total number of hrs of work paid per year.
6. As an experienced nurse manager who is new to an organization, it would be important to:
a. know the difference between operating and capital budgets.
b. understand the budget timetable and level of involvement expected of individual managers in budget preparation.
c. know why a budget is essential to the well-being of an organization.
d. understand what factors drive up healthcare costs in the healthcare system.
7. Which of the following are considered variable costs? (Select all that apply.)
a. Salaries for the minimum number of staff
b. Utilities and rent
c. Managed care
d. Supplies
e. Medication and treatment supplies
Rat:
The total fixed costs in a unit are those costs that do not change as the volume of patients changes. In other words, with either a high or a low patient census, expenses related to rent, utilities, loan payments, administrative salaries, and salaries of the minimum number of staff to keep a unit open must be paid. Variable costs are costs that vary in direct proportion to patient volume or acuity. Examples include nursing personnel, supplies, and medications. [Show Less]