Joyce Jones is the Chief Operating Officer at Empire Hospital in Missoula, Montana. She is analyzing the hospital's overhead costs but is not sure whether nursing hours or the number of patient days would be the best cost driver to use for predicting the hospital's overhead. She has gathered the following information for the last six months of the most recent year:

Month	Hospital Overhead Costs	Nursing Hours	Number of Patient Days	Overhead Cost per Nursing Hour	Overhead Cost per Patient Day
July	$476,000	24,000	3,720	$19.83	$127.96
August	$512,000	26,000	4,320	$19.69	$118.52
September	$424,000	20,000	4,220	$21.20	$100.47
October	$448,000	22,500	3,470	$19.91	$129.11
November	$555,000	30,000	5,690	$18.50	$97.54
December	$431,000	22,000	3,210	$19.59	$134.27

Are hospital overhead costs fixed, variable, or mixed. Use the data in the table in arriving at your conclusion. Variable cost Fixed cost Mixed cost Hospital Overhead Costs

2. Using the High-Low Method and nursing hours as a driver of overhead, what is the variable cost per unit?

3. Using the High-Low Method (again, with nursing hours as a driver of overhead), what is the fixed cost component of the cost function for hospital overhead?

4. Estimate total hospital overhead costs if Empire Hospital incurs 25,000 of nursing hours in January using the information from the High-Low Method gathered in Questions #2 and #3.

5. Estimate total hospital overhead costs if Empire Hospital uses patient days as a driver and the High-Low method and assuming the hospital incurs 4,600 of patient days in January