NU753 Unit 8 Business Case, Enhanced Recovery Example

Course	NU753 Transforming the Health Care Organization
Unit	Unit 8
Paper type	Business case
Length	About 870 words, 6 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Updated	September 2026

Free sample paper for NU753 Unit 8

$185,960 In, $102,760 Back: A Business Case for an Enhanced Recovery Pathway on 5 West's Colorectal Service, With Every Figure Traced to One Assumptions Table, Three Scenarios and a Break-Even Point

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU753: Transforming the Health Care Organization

Unit 8 Business Case

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The system, unit, volumes and costs are composite; every figure is a bracketed placeholder calculated from the assumptions stated.

What this part is doingThe request and base-case return come first, because an executive reader decides whether to keep reading from the first lines.

Summary

Request: approve $[185,960] a year for a pathway coordinator, a weekend mobility aide, carbohydrate drinks, staff education and a compliance audit. Base-case return: net savings of $[102,760] a year after accounting for lost per-diem revenue. Worst case: a loss of $[35,776]. Best case: a net gain of $[241,296]. Break-even: a stay reduction of about [0.62] days.

What the Money Buys

The pathway follows the 2018 ERAS Society recommendations for colorectal operations, which bundle elements across the whole episode of care: counseling before admission, shorter fasting with a carbohydrate drink, opioid-sparing analgesia, avoidance of routine nasogastric tubes, early feeding, early removal of urinary catheters, early mobilization and routine auditing of compliance (Gustafsson et al., 2019). Most elements cost little in money but require someone to coordinate them across the preoperative clinic, operating suite and 5 West. That is why the coordinator is the largest cost: the guideline's elements work as a bundle, and without a person whose job is to keep the bundle together, compliance tends to fall after the first months.

All figures below derive from nine assumptions. Volume: [320] elective colorectal resections a year. Stay reduction: [1.5] days per patient, with a plausible range of [0.8] to [2.2]; published enhanced recovery programs in the United States have reported reductions ranging from about 0.7 to 2.7 days (Stone et al., 2016). Variable cost: $[640] per bed-day avoided, from the finance department's cost accounting, counting only costs that fall when a patient leaves earlier. Complications avoided: [12] a year, at an average incremental cost of $[9,500] each; enhanced recovery programs have been associated with fewer complications (Ljungqvist et al., 2017). Payment: [12] percent of cases are paid by the day, at $[2,300] a day; the rest are paid per case, so a shorter stay reduces cost without reducing revenue.

Costs

The pathway coordinator, a registered nurse, costs $[133,120] a year with benefits, the largest item. A weekend mobility aide at [0.4] full-time equivalent costs $[24,960]. Carbohydrate drinks for [320] patients at $[12] each cost $[3,840]. Staff education, including paid hours for nurses, clinic staff and aides, costs $[14,040] in the first year. Compliance audit time beyond the coordinator's role costs $[10,000]. The total is $[185,960] a year.

Return

Bed-days avoided: [320] patients times [1.5] days times $[640] equals $[307,200]. Complications avoided: [12] times $[9,500] equals $[114,000]. Lost per-diem revenue: [12] percent of [320] cases is [38.4] cases, times [1.5] days times $[2,300], equals $[132,480]. Gross benefit, $[421,200], minus lost revenue gives $[288,720]. Subtracting costs of $[185,960] leaves a net return of $[102,760].

The case holds even after the hospital gives up the revenue it earns from longer stays, and that loss is shown in the table rather than hidden.

Scenarios

In the worst case, stays fall by only [0.8] days and [6] complications are avoided: bed-days save $[163,840], complications $[57,000], lost revenue is $[70,656], and the net after costs is a loss of $[35,776]. In the best case, stays fall by [2.2] days and [18] complications are avoided: bed-days save $[450,560], complications $[171,000], lost revenue is $[194,304], and the net is a gain of $[241,296].

Break-Even

Holding complications at [12], each day of stay reduction is worth $[204,800] in avoided bed-day costs and costs $[88,320] in lost per-diem revenue, a net of $[116,480] per day. Covering the gap between the pathway's cost of $[185,960] and the complication savings of $[114,000] requires [71,960] divided by [116,480], about [0.62] days. A reduction below that, sustained over a year, would make the pathway a net cost.

What this part is doingThe break-even figure is derived step by step, so a finance reviewer can check it without a spreadsheet.

Benefits Not Counted

The case counts only benefits that can be priced with the hospital's own cost data. It leaves out several that matter to patients and staff: less nausea and earlier eating, fewer days with a urinary catheter, and a quicker return to walking and to home. It also leaves out freed operating capacity if shorter stays allow more elective cases to be scheduled, which finance judged too uncertain to include. These omissions make the base case conservative.

Who Bears the Cost

The costs fall on nursing's budget, which would carry the coordinator, aide and education. The savings fall largely on the hospital's overall operating margin, through freed bed-days and fewer complications, and the lost revenue falls on the finance department's projections. That mismatch is common and is one reason pathways are approved in principle and then underfunded. The request therefore asks the chief operating officer to fund the coordinator centrally rather than from the unit budget.

Risks

Three risks could reduce the return. Surgeons may adopt only some elements, limiting the stay reduction. The freed beds may go unfilled, turning avoided costs into idle capacity rather than savings. And the coordinator position may be cut in a later budget cycle before the pathway is self-sustaining. The compliance audit is designed to detect the first risk early.

References

Gustafsson, U. O., Scott, M. J., Hubner, M., Nygren, J., Demartines, N., Francis, N., Rockall, T. A., Young-Fadok, T. M., Hill, A. G., Soop, M., de Boer, H. D., Urman, R. D., Chang, G. J., Fichera, A., Kessler, H., Grass, F., Whang, E. E., Fawcett, W. J., Carli, F., . . . Ljungqvist, O. (2019). Guidelines for perioperative care in elective colorectal surgery: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society recommendations: 2018. World Journal of Surgery, 43(3), 659-695. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-018-4844-y

Ljungqvist, O., Scott, M., & Fearon, K. C. (2017). Enhanced recovery after surgery: A review. JAMA Surgery, 152(3), 292-298. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2016.4952

Stone, A. B., Grant, M. C., Roda, C. P., Hobson, D., Pawlik, T., Wu, C. L., & Wick, E. C. (2016). Implementation costs of an enhanced recovery after surgery program in the United States: A financial model and sensitivity analysis based on experiences at a quaternary academic medical center. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 222(3), 219-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2015.11.021

What the NU753 Unit 8 assignment asks for

For Unit 8 you build a business case for your proposed change. Most versions ask for a summary with the request and expected return, an assumptions table, cost and return builds, scenarios or sensitivity analysis, a break-even point, and risks. Around eight pages is common. Faculty reward cases in which every figure traces to a stated assumption with a range, costs and returns use the right cost concept, lost revenue is shown rather than hidden, and the downside is presented openly. Use variable rather than average cost per day for avoided bed-days, since a shorter stay does not remove fixed costs, and name any published figures used as substitutes for local data.

How this NU753 Unit 8 example is built

The case opens with a summary of the request, the base-case return, both scenarios and the break-even. A section explains what the money buys, citing the ERAS Society's recommendations. The assumptions paragraph lists volume, stay reduction with its range and a published comparison, variable cost, complications and payment mix. Costs are built item by item, led by the coordinator. The return subtracts lost per-diem revenue from bed-day and complication savings, and the highlighted sentence notes that the case holds after that loss. Worst and best scenarios follow, then a step-by-step break-even calculation. Sections cover benefits not counted, the mismatch between who pays and who saves, and three risks.

Reading the NU753 Unit 8 grading rubric

Business cases are typically scored on clarity of the request, transparency of assumptions, accuracy of calculations, treatment of risk and alignment with organizational priorities. The request earns credit when it is stated with its return in the first lines. Transparency rewards a single place where every assumption is listed with its source and range. Calculations are judged on whether each figure can be reproduced from the assumptions. Risk treatment is credited when scenarios, a break-even point and named risks are included. Alignment scores well when the case explains who bears costs and savings and asks for funding accordingly. A one-page summary that an executive could act on is expected in most sections.

NU753 Unit 8 help from the desk

A common weakness is using average cost per day, which overstates savings from shorter stays. Another is ignoring revenue lost under per-diem contracts. Some cases present only the best scenario. Others scatter assumptions through the text, so figures cannot be checked. Many omit a break-even point, which tells decision makers what must go right. And cases often ignore who bears the cost, which is why funded pathways are later cut. Put every assumption in one place with a range, use variable costs, show lost revenue, present worst and best cases, compute the break-even, and say whose budget carries the expense. Finally, ask a finance colleague to check your cost concept before submitting, since that single choice changes the answer more than any other.

Get an NU753 Unit 8 example written to your instructions

Send the change you are pricing, any figures your site will release, the audience your prompt names and the rubric; where data are confidential, say what you would substitute. The first custom sample is free, returns within 24-48h, and prices both sides with each assumption in a table and the arithmetic shown. 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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NU753 Unit 8 questions, answered

Can a business case use published figures instead of hospital data?

Yes, provided each substitute is named and given a range. Posted salary ranges, published cost-per-day studies and benchmark length-of-stay data can carry most inputs. The sample marks which figures came from its composite finance office and which from the literature, so a reader can see where the case would change once local numbers arrive.

Why use variable cost instead of average cost per day?

Because a shorter stay does not remove the building, the equipment or most salaried staff; it removes supplies, some labor and other costs that move with volume. Average cost includes everything and so overstates what a freed bed-day saves. Finance reviewers look for this distinction, and the sample explains it in two sentences before relying on it.

Is a business case with a possible loss worth submitting?

Often it is more persuasive. A case showing a downside scenario and the break-even point tells a committee exactly what must go right, which is information a purely positive case withholds. The sample's low scenario loses money, and its break-even analysis names the measure to watch, complications avoided, if the pathway is approved.

Where can I find a free NU753 Unit 8 sample paper?

This page presents the complete NU753 Unit 8 business case, with the summary, what the money buys, assumptions, costs, returns, scenarios, break-even, benefits not counted, who bears the cost and risks, plus three references. A business case for your own proposal can be requested.

How is the break-even found in NU753 Unit 8?

Each day of stay reduction saves $204,800 in avoided bed-days and loses $88,320 in per-diem revenue, a net of $116,480. Covering the $71,960 left after complication savings requires about 0.62 days.