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You work in an Emergency Department (ED) that sees 6,000 patients a month

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You work in an Emergency Department (ED) that sees 6,000 patients a month. Patients are charged $200.00 per visit plus charges for tests and medications. Thus, these 6,000 patients can generate $1,200,000 in gross revenue for the hospital. Consider that there are 15 RNs making $30.00 per hour and 6 MDs making $150.00 per hour working each shift. Salaries for the RNs total $324,000. Salaries for the MDs total $648,000. The total monthly salary for these two groups is $972,000. Of the 6,000 patients, 50% have Medicare/Medicaid, 45% are covered by managed care or insurance, and 5% have no insurance. Thus, just 95% of patients can pay their bills. The other 5% of patients‘ bills are written off by the hospital as bad debt. Medicare/Medicaid/Managed Care/Insurance companies often only pay 55% of the bills for these patients. They may deny payment for 45% of the bills. Thus, for the $1,140,000 billed (95% of $1,200,000), the hospital will receive approximately $627,000 (55% of the $1,140,000 billed). Approximately $513,000 of the bill will not be paid by Medicare/Medicaid/ Managed Care/Insurance. Consider the following: What other expenses besides salary must the hospital pay out of the $627,000 that it receives? Consider hospital space, liability insurance, technology costs, and so on. Consider that the hospital will also be partially reimbursed for all services delivered during the patient's visit. Notice the effect that increasing the volume of patients has on your budget fi gures. What happens to your budget if the patient volume goes to 8,000 patient ED visits per month and staffi ng stays the same? Are patients receiving useful information about future illness prevention and healthy living practices in the ED? Is this a cost-effective way to deliver health care? How could we better serve the health care needs of Americans?