Paramount Hospital is widely known for one thinghernia repair! In fact, that is the only operation it performs, and it performs a great many of them. Over the past two decades this small 90-bed hospital has averaged 7,000 operations annually. Last year, it had a record year and performed nearly 7,500 operations.

The below table shows the number of operations with 90 Beds (30 patients per day). Each row in the table follows the patients who checked in on a given day. The columns indicate the number of patients in the hospital on a given day.

For example, the first row of the table shows that 30 people checked in on Monday and were in the hospital for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By summing the columns of the table for Wednesday, we see that there are 90 patients staying in the hospital that day.

The medical facilities at Paramount consist of five operating rooms, a patient recovery room, a laboratory, and six examination rooms. An operation at Paramount Hospital is performed by one of the 12 full-time surgeons assisted by one of seven part-time assistant surgeons. Surgeons generally take about one hour to prepare for and perform each hernia operation. Surgery is performed 8:00 5:00.

Now look at the effect of increasing the number of beds by 50 percent.

a. How many operations could the hospital perform per day before running out of bed capacity? (Assume operations are performed five days per week, with the same number performed on each day.)

b. How well would the new resources be utilized relative to the current operation? (Round to 1 decimal)

	BEDS REQUIRED
Check-In	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Mon	30	30	30
Tue		30	30	30
Wed			30	30	30
Thu				30	30	30
Fri
Sat
Sun	30	30					30
TOTAL	60	90	90	90	60	30	30
%

Although financial data are sketchy, an estimate from a construction company indicates that adding bed capacity would cost about $100,000 per bed. In addition, the rate charged for the hernia surgery varies between about $900 and $2,000 (U.S. dollars), with an average rate of $1,300 per operation. The surgeons are paid a flat $600 per operation.

c. How many weeks the hospital would payback its investments? (Round to 1 decimal)