Question: Review the available information for grounds maintenance at the three facilities. Decide how to convert this information into comparable data. Then prepare a report, based on your assumptions, that presents comparable costs of grounds care. Also provide your assessment of what the best future course of action should be.

1. Sample General Hospital uses its Maintenance department employees for grounds care. The hospital pays these employees $15 per hour plus 15% employee benefits; it is estimated they spend 1,000 hours per year on grounds maintenance work. Another estimated 120 hours per year are spent on maintaining the lawn care equipment. The employees use a riding lawn mower, edger, and blower, all owned by the hospital. The hospital just bought a new mower for $2,995 less a 10% discount. It is expected that the mower should last for five years.

2. The hospital's Chief of the Medical Staff's son Jason, a student at the local community college, is paid $100 per week year-round for grounds maintenance at the hospital's Outpatient Center. A friend sometimes helps, but when that happens Jason pays him out of his weekly $100. It takes about 1.5 hours to mow, edge, and blow. Jason uses his dad's riding mower and blower, but Jason recently bought his own edger. Jason also buys fertilizer for the grass twice a year.

3. The Nursing Facility contracts with a landscape service on a seasonally adjusted sliding scale. The landscape service is paid $600 per month from April to October (mowing season); $400 per month for February, March, and November; and $200 per month for November, December, and January. The landscape service provides all their own equipment. They also provide fertilizer and provide annuals to plant in the flower beds every quarter.