| Course | HI550 Organizational Development and Management for Health Information |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 4 |
| Paper type | Staffing and workload plan |
| Length | About 1,060 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MS in Health Informatics |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HI550 Unit 4
One Hire, Not Five: A Unit 4 Staffing and Workload Plan That Converts Thirteen Weeks of Counts Into Hours by Work Type
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HI550: Organizational Development and Management for Health Information
Unit 4 Staffing and Workload Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Quillan Health, its staff, volumes, minutes and costs are composite; the sources cited are real.
The Request and the Answer
In March the three site supervisors wrote that the merged health information department needed five more positions to stop running overtime and missing breaks. They were right that the department is strained. This plan finds that the strain is uneven: two work types are short of staff, two have more than they need, and a backlog of 1,100 unbilled records is a one-time problem being treated as a permanent one. The recommended response is one new inpatient coder, two staff moved into coding roles they are qualified for, and a short coding contract to clear the backlog.
Method
Volumes for thirteen weeks came from three places: the encoder's productivity reports for coding and chart completion, the release log, and scanning batch counts from the document imaging system. Minutes per item are the department's own medians for the same thirteen weeks, taken from the encoder's time stamps and a two-week time study at the release and scanning desks. A published benchmark was considered and set aside, because all three hospitals now use one record system and one set of coding rules, and the department's own figures reflect that system better than a national average would. Staffing textbooks recommend exactly this approach when local data are reliable (Oachs & Watters, 2020), and quality texts add that a time study should be repeated after any change in system or workflow, since the old medians stop describing the work (Shaw & Carter, 2019).
A productive full-time equivalent is defined as 1,768 hours a year, or 34 hours a week. That figure starts from 2,080 paid hours and removes paid leave, required education and staff meetings. Using paid rather than productive hours would understate need by about fifteen percent.
Workload by Type
Each line gives weekly volume, median minutes per item, required hours, required FTE, staffed FTE and the difference.
1. Inpatient coding: 420 records, 38 minutes, 266 hours, 7.8 FTE required, 6.0 staffed, short 1.8.
2. Outpatient coding: 1,530 encounters, 6 minutes, 153 hours, 4.5 required, 3.9 staffed, short 0.6.
3. Chart completion: 640 deficiencies, 4 minutes, 43 hours, 1.3 required, 1.3 staffed, even.
4. Release of information: 310 requests, 12 minutes, 62 hours, 1.8 required, 2.7 staffed, over 0.9.
5. Scanning and indexing of loose paper: 260 items, 5 minutes, 22 hours, 0.6 required, 1.8 staffed, over 1.2.
6. Outside records: 870 items, 3 minutes, 44 hours, 1.3 required, 1.3 staffed, even.
7. Front counter at the critical access hospital: staffed by coverage, not volume, 1.0 required, 1.0 staffed.
Across the department the net gap is less than a third of one position, but coding is short 2.4 FTE while scanning and release carry 2.1 FTE more than their work requires.
The surplus is no one's fault. The new record system cut paper at all three hospitals, and consolidating release work removed tasks that each site used to duplicate. Staffing simply did not move with the work.
Why Overtime Happened Anyway
If the department is nearly balanced overall, the overtime needs an explanation, and the supervisors deserve one. Two causes account for most of it. First, the backlog: 1,100 inpatient records waited for coding after the merger, and every overtime hour in the thirteen weeks went to inpatient coders at the regional center trying to reduce it. Second, uneven assignment: work queues are still built by site, so Hollis coders finished their own records by Thursday in eight of the thirteen weeks while the regional queue grew. Federal wage law sets the premium for any week beyond forty hours at 150 percent of base pay (29 U.S.C. § 207, 2024), and the department paid for about 1,900 such hours in the period. Missed breaks clustered in the same group and the same weeks.
Steady State: The Positions
1. Hire one inpatient coder, 1.0 FTE, credentialed. Estimated cost with benefits is $81,000 a year.
2. Move one release specialist who holds a coding credential into inpatient coding at 0.8 of her time, keeping 0.2 in release work for subpoenas, which she knows best. Release of information still has 0.1 FTE spare after the move.
3. Move one scanning technician who completed the coding certificate program last year into outpatient coding at 1.0 FTE, with second-level review of her work for her first eight weeks. Scanning keeps 0.2 FTE spare, which absorbs month-end peaks.
4. Combine the inpatient coding queues for all three hospitals into one, so that coders at any site take the oldest record first.
After these moves, inpatient coding is balanced and outpatient coding carries a 0.4 FTE cushion, which is needed while the redeployed technician reaches full speed.
The Backlog: A One-Time Price
The 1,100 unbilled records are priced separately. At the department's median of 38 minutes, they represent about 700 coding hours. A contract with a remote coding firm for eight weeks, at an assumed blended rate of $62 an hour, costs about $43,000. Keeping the backlog separate prevents a temporary need from becoming a permanent position. When the contract ends, the steady-state staff should hold the queue at its normal size.
Minimum Staffing at the Smallest Hospital
The critical access hospital's front counter is staffed at 1.0 FTE whatever its volume. Patients and local requesters come to that counter in person, and the hospital has no other records staff. Volume would justify less, but closing the counter would end walk-in release and record review in a town forty miles from the regional center.
Cost Comparison
Five new positions would cost about $405,000 a year. This plan costs about $81,000 a year plus a one-time $43,000. It does depend on two staff accepting new roles; both have been asked informally and are interested. If either declines, the fallback is a second hire, which would still cost well under half of the original request.
Limits
Minutes per item are medians, and complex inpatient cases at the regional center take longer than at Hollis. The plan should be checked after one quarter against unbilled days and overtime hours.
References
Oachs, P. K., & Watters, A. L. (Eds.). (2020). Health information management: Concepts, principles, and practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press.
Shaw, P. L., & Carter, D. (2019). Quality and performance improvement in healthcare: Theory, practice, and management (7th ed.). AHIMA Press.
29 U.S.C. § 207 (2024). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/207
Reading the HI 550 Unit 4 instructions
The fourth unit commonly asks for a staffing plan for a health information department, based on workload data from the scenario or your own setting. Expect to show volumes, time standards, required hours and the gap between required and staffed positions. Prompts often ask you to justify the time standards you use, whether local medians or published benchmarks. Define what you count as a productive FTE, since that single figure moves every result. Many instructors want the plan to address overtime, backlog or turnover directly. Eight pages and one staffing table is a typical scope. Separate steady-state needs from temporary ones, and price each. Close with the specific positions, the costs and what happens if part of the plan cannot be carried out.
Inside the HI550 Unit 4 example
The sample answers the supervisors in its first paragraph and then shows the work. A method section names the data sources, explains why the department's own medians were used instead of a benchmark, and defines the productive FTE. Seven numbered lines give each work type's weekly volume, minutes per item, required hours, required and staffed FTE, and the difference. The highlighted sentence observes that the net gap is under a third of a position while coding and clerical work pull in opposite directions. A section on overtime traces it to the backlog and to queues built by site. The positions section lists one hire, two redeployments and a combined coding queue. The backlog is priced as a one-time contract, the smallest hospital keeps its counter, and a cost comparison and limits close the plan.
Reading the HI550 Unit 4 grading rubric
Staffing plans are typically scored on the soundness of the workload analysis, the justification of standards, the recommendations and their costs, and the writing. The analysis carries the most points, and it is judged on whether required hours are computed by work type from defensible data. Justifying the time standards and the FTE definition earns a separate share, because unexplained figures make the result impossible to check. Recommendations score well when they follow from the numbers and address the problem the scenario raises, here overtime. Cost estimates and a fallback option add credit. Tables, APA format and professional tone finish the rubric. Plans that simply endorse a request for more staff, or cut staff because one ratio says so, tend to lose points on analysis.
Common HI550 Unit 4 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Students often lose points by computing need from paid hours rather than productive hours, which understates the gap. Another common problem is a single department-wide total that hides shortages and surpluses in different work types. Some plans treat a backlog as permanent work and hire for it. Benchmarks are sometimes used without saying whether they fit the department's system. Overtime is frequently mentioned but never explained. Arithmetic errors in the table draw immediate comments. If your scenario has different work types or a remote team, collect your volumes and time data along with the prompt, and a staffing plan can be built from your own counts.
Get an HI550 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Send the volumes you are allowed to use, or the case department's figures, along with the assignment text and rubric. Within 24-48h a free first custom sample runs the FTE arithmetic on those numbers instead of Quillan's, surpluses included, with every assumption stated where a finance reader would look for it. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HI550 Unit 4 questions, answered
Where do the minutes per item come from if my department has no standard?
From a timed sample or from system timestamps, stated as an estimate with its basis. The example uses the department's own medians because all three hospitals now share one system. If nothing local exists, a published figure can stand in, provided the plan says where it comes from and what makes the source organization different from the one being staffed.
Should the plan recommend fewer staff if the numbers show a surplus?
It should report the surplus honestly and then decide what to do with it. The example moves surplus hours into coding through retraining instead of eliminating positions, and explains the choice by cost and retention. A plan that hides a surplus to protect staff is easy for a finance reader to discover, and it undermines every other figure in the document.
What is a productive FTE and why does the plan define it?
The hours a full-time person is actually available for work after leave, holidays, education and meetings. Organizations set the figure differently, commonly somewhere between eighty and ninety percent of paid hours, so the example states its assumption before using it. Without that definition, two readers can compute different staffing needs from identical volumes and both believe they are right.
Where can I find a free HI550 Unit 4 sample paper?
The full Unit 4 staffing plan is on this page, with a seven-line workload table, a separately priced backlog and a cost comparison against the original request.
Should a staffing plan use national productivity benchmarks?
Only when local data are missing or unreliable. When a department has one system and dependable time stamps, its own medians usually describe the work better, and the plan should say why.