Allocation of nursing care hours in a combined ophthalmic nursing unit

Traditional service configuration with separate nursing units for outpatient and inpatient care is becoming ineffective for new patient care delivery models. With the new configuration of a combined nursing unit, it was necessary to rethink traditional reporting methodologies and calculation of hours of care. This project management plan is an initial attempt to develop a standard costing/productivity model for a combined unit. The methodology developed from this plan measures nursing care hours for each patient population to determine the number of full time equivalents (FTEs) for a combined unit and allocates FTEs based on inpatient (IP), outpatient (OP), and emergency room (ER) volumes.