The Invitro Hospital has this past year started performing a highly labor-intensive prenatal test for genetic illnesses. This chorionic villus sampling, or CVS test, requires a fair amount of laboratory technician labor.

In this first year, the hospital has done 256 such tests. Although the miscarriage rate is higher than for an amniocentesis, the CVS produces results at an earlier stage of pregnancy. This fact has led Invitro to project 768 tests for the coming year.

The head of the laboratory has included in the budget 721 hours of technician time to perform these tests, at a rate of S 1 7 per hour including fringes, or a total of

$12,257 for labor. He argues that in the first year of performing this test, the laboratory technicians spent an average of 56.3 minutes per test. Projecting this rate to next years 768 volume would result in 721 hours required.

Intuitively, you know that the estimate is too high. Haven t the technicians improved their ability to do the test over the first 256 tests done? You ask for data on the time taken to do the first 32 tests and find that the technicians spent 100 minutes on the first test, 92 on the next one, 85 on each of the next 2, 79 on each of the next 4, 71 on each of the next 8, and 66 on each of the following 16. You also find out that the last 128 done each took 51.3 minutes on average.

How much should be budgeted for laboratory technician labor for next year?