Ceiling lifts for eight rooms, $97,800, go before a capital committee in NU513's Unit 9 request, argued on staff injury costs, payback and a break-even injury reduction. Searches like "nu 513 unit 9 assignment example", "nu513 unit 9 sample" and "nu513 unit 9 example" land here.
Capital Request: Ceiling Lifts for Eight Rooms, Argued From Seven Staff Injuries and a 20 Percent Break-Even
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU513: Health Care Finance, Economics, and Strategic Planning
Unit 9 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, costs, injury counts and discount rate are composite and bracketed; the evidence and standards cited are published.
Capital Request Form
1. Item: ceiling-mounted patient lifts for eight rooms, and two portable floor lifts.
2. Department: adult medicine, 34 beds.
3. Total cost: $97,800.
4. Useful life: ten years.
5. Category: employee safety.
6. Requested by: [Student Name], Nurse Manager. Sponsor: Chief Nursing Officer.
Financial Exhibit
Every input is shown, because committees discount benefits they cannot trace.
1. Ceiling lifts: eight rooms at a bracketed [$10,400] each, installed, $83,200.
2. Portable lifts: two at [$7,300], $14,600.
3. Total capital cost: $97,800.
4. Annual maintenance and slings: [$3,600].
5. Baseline injuries: seven patient-handling injuries to staff in the last two years, 3.5 a year, from the unit's occupational health records.
6. Average cost per injury: a bracketed [$23,800], combining workers' compensation claims and replacement labor for lost and restricted days.
7. Planning assumption: a [55] percent reduction in patient-handling injuries.
8. Injuries avoided: 3.5 times 0.55 equals 1.93 a year.
9. Annual benefit: 1.925 times $23,800 equals $45,815.
10. Net annual cash flow: $45,815 minus $3,600 equals $42,215.
11. Discount rate: the hospital's [6] percent.
12. Ten-year net present value, which discounts future benefits to today's dollars so they can be compared with the cost paid now (Finkler et al., 2013): minus $97,800 plus $42,215 times the ten-year annuity factor of 7.360, equals about $212,906.
13. Simple payback: $97,800 divided by $42,215, about 2.3 years.
The Number That Matters Most
The planning assumption of a 55 percent reduction is the input a skeptical committee will question. The break-even calculation answers that question in advance. For the lifts to return exactly their cost over ten years at 6 percent, the annual net cash flow must be $97,800 divided by 7.360, about $13,288. Adding maintenance, the annual benefit must be about $16,888. Dividing by the baseline cost of injuries, 3.5 times $23,800, or $83,300 a year, gives a required reduction of about 20.3 percent.
The lifts pay for themselves if they prevent about one in five of the unit's patient-handling injuries, well below the planning assumption, so the committee does not have to accept 55 percent to approve the request.
Why the Reduction Is Plausible
Patient handling equipment is central to the evidence on preventing these injuries. In six nursing homes that introduced mechanical lifts, a zero-lift policy and staff training, workers' compensation claims for resident-handling injuries fell to about 39 percent of their earlier rate after adjustment, and the initial investment was recovered in less than three years from lower claim costs (Collins et al., 2004). That study compared periods before and after the program and had no control group, and nursing homes differ from a medicine unit, so its effect size should be read cautiously, which is why the break-even figure matters more than the planning assumption. National standards for safe patient handling and mobility call for technology such as lifts to replace manual lifting as part of a comprehensive program (American Nurses Association, 2013).
Justification Against the Committee's Criteria
Capital requests at the hospital are scored on safety, regulatory exposure, financial return and strategic fit.
Safety: the purchase addresses the unit's most frequent cause of staff injury and also reduces risk to patients during transfers. Score expected: high.
Regulatory exposure: several states have safe patient handling laws, and the hospital's own policy commits it to a safe handling program. The request supports compliance with that policy. Score expected: moderate.
Financial return: a positive net present value at the hospital's discount rate, with payback in about 2.3 years and a break-even reduction far below the planning assumption. Score expected: high.
Strategic fit: nurse retention is a system priority, and injuries contribute to turnover; the unit's own turnover estimate values each nurse who stays at close to $49,000, which is not counted in the figures above. Score expected: high.
Competition in the Pool
The pool holds less than half of what departments have requested, and the packet does not pretend otherwise. Its case for priority is that it combines a staff safety benefit, a positive financial return and a low break-even threshold, and that its benefits are measured from the unit's own records rather than projected from national data. If the committee must choose, a phased purchase is possible: the four rooms used most often for patients needing full assistance first, at about $48,900 with one portable lift, and the rest in the next capital cycle.
Measures After Purchase
Patient-handling injuries to staff, quarterly; lift use per shift from sling logs; and staff-reported manual lifts on the unit's safety huddle board. The first review will be at twelve months, against the 20.3 percent break-even reduction. If injuries have not fallen by that much, the review will look first at lift use, since equipment that stays in the closet cannot prevent injuries, and at whether the sling supply kept up with demand.
References
American Nurses Association. (2013). Safe patient handling and mobility: Interprofessional national standards across the care continuum. American Nurses Association.
Collins, J. W., Wolf, L., Bell, J., & Evanoff, B. (2004). An evaluation of a "best practices" musculoskeletal injury prevention program in nursing homes. Injury Prevention, 10(4), 206-211. https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.2004.005595
Finkler, S. A., Jones, C. B., & Kovner, C. T. (2013). Financial management for nurse managers and executives (4th ed.). Elsevier.
How this NU513 Unit 9 example is structured
Written for a committee that will read many requests, the packet puts its figures where a reviewer expects them and argues only after. The financial exhibit shows every input, because committees discount benefits they cannot trace. One number receives the most attention: the reduction in injuries needed for the lifts to break even, 20.3 percent, which is well below the planning assumption and gives the committee a margin it can judge for itself. The justification then addresses the competition directly. Capital requests at the composite hospital are scored on safety, regulatory exposure, financial return and strategic fit, and the packet scores itself honestly on each, conceding that a regulatory case is weak where no state mandate applies. Patient benefits, safer transfers and earlier mobility for heavier patients, are described without being counted. A phasing option closes it: four rooms this year, four next.
Get an NU513 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Choose the equipment your unit most needs, gather any cost and benefit figures you can, and forward them with the Unit 9 prompt and rubric. A capital request with the financial exhibit worked through reaches you in 24-48h, and a first request costs nothing. The case you make to your own committee is yours. 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.
NU513 Unit 9 questions, answered
What discount rate should I use?
The one your organization or case specifies. Hospitals often use a rate reflecting their cost of capital, and the sample uses a bracketed 6 percent. If your prompt gives no rate, state the one you chose and why, and show that the conclusion holds at a somewhat higher rate. A net present value computed without a stated rate cannot be checked.
Can a safety request show a financial return?
Often, yes. Staff injuries carry workers' compensation, replacement labor and turnover costs, and patient harm carries treatment costs. The sample prices staff injuries from occupational health records. Where no credible figure exists, describe the benefit and keep it out of the totals, as the sample does with patient mobility, so the counted return is not inflated.
How do I handle competing requests I cannot see?
Score your request against the committee's criteria as honestly as you can, and say where it is weak. Many organizations publish their capital scoring categories internally, and your manager can often describe them. The sample rates itself on safety, regulatory exposure, return and strategic fit, and offers a phased option in case the full amount cannot be funded this cycle.