It has been noted that the average cost to board a patient in the ED is higher (~$50 per patient bed-hour) than the cost to house the patient on either an inpatient floor (~$25 per patient bed-hour) or an admissions/observation holding area (~$10 per patient bed-hour) - e.g., see the article, The Economics of an Admissions Holding Unit. This local hospital does not currently have an observation holding area and is considering building one. List the information you would need to make an economic decision on whether building an observation holding area for this local hospital makes sense or not. [E.g., you likely need to know the cost to build the holding area, which could be assumed to have a fixed component (a few million dollars) + a variable component (tens of thousands of dollars per bed).]