This week you are preparing the budget for the HIM department. Your department currently employs four full-time and one outsourced staff members, which includes a coder, file clerk, receptionist, data quality manager, outsourced release of information specialist (ROI) and director.
The department processes about 600 discharges per month, each discharge takes about 15 minutes to code. The department's ROI request rate was as follows for this past year: 750 charts in first quarter, 900 in the second quarter, 575 in the third quarter, and 1000 in the fourth quarter.
Expenditures
- This past fiscal year each employee had the following salary. Each full-time employee will receive a 3% cost of living raise next year.
- Coder: $36,400/annually
- File clerk: $10/hr (Full-time employee who works 2080 hrs/annually)
- Data quality manager: $52,000/annually
- ROI specialist: $3.50/chart processed
- Director: $68,000/annually
- The hospital plans on opening a new OB/GYN unit at the beginning of next year. This new unit is expected to increase the discharge rate by 20%, which require the HIM department to hire a part-time coder. The hospital starts all of its coders at $15/hr.
- The hospital also purchased a new electronic medical record (EMR) system and is preparing to scan all the manual records into the system. This will require the HIM department to hire two scanners at a rate of $7.20/hr. Each scanner will work a full-time 40 hour week. One scanner will be needed for half the year and the other scanner will continue to work for the entire year.
- Remember to include the data that you analyzed last week. Use the actual expenditure amounts as a basis for your budget with the exception of membership dues. Membership dues will increase by $25 per employee. Assume that only the coder, manager, and director are active in a professional organization.