When budgeting for personnel, hospitals typically use FTEs to calculate the number of employee hours needed to process the work tasks in a given department, unit, or function. FTEs (full-time equivalent) are generally calculated on the typical workweek as defined by the facility:

• 1 FTE = 40 hours/week
• 40 hours/week x 52 weeks = 2,080 hours/year

The second part of the staffing calculation consists of estimating the volume of work to be done.

• Work standard: 16 minutes to draw blood from a patient
• Volume per day: 60 patients needing blood drawn
• 60 patients x 16 minutes = 960 minutes needed each day
• 1 FTE = 480 minutes per work day
• 960 / 480 = 2.0

Needed: 2.0 FTEs to process 60 patients per day

If the hospital could reduce the time needed to draw blood to 8 minutes, then the number of FTEs needed would be?

If the number of patients needing blood drawn increases to 120, then the number of FTE's needed would be?

If the number of patients needing blood drawn decreases to 45, then the number of FTEs needed would be?

If the hospital could reduce the time needed to draw blood to 12 minutes then the number of FTEs would be?