Question: You just finished your MHA degree and your boss wants "to show you off" in an upcoming staff meeting because she feels you have a lot of potential. Needless to say, you feel some pressure.
She says the organization's telemedicine unit has seen "high growth", but she is not sure how much. The unit was stood up a year ago, and "has been very busy", according to her. She tasks you to come up with staffing estimates to make sure there are enough telemedicine nurses to meet the demand.
Below is the data she gives you for the past 12 months the center has been open, and then she asks, "How many telemedicine nurses would you forecast weneed inthe next 6 months?"
Year 1 - # of telemedicine phone calls received. The Telemedicine Center is open from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week, and telehealth nurses work the entire 12 hour shift. You can assume a single call takes 15 minutes for a telemedicine nurse to handle.
|
Month
|
Average # of Telemedicine callsreceived per day for each month the center was open in year 1
|
|
Jan
|
37
|
|
Feb
|
28
|
|
Mar
|
42
|
|
Apr
|
48
|
|
May
|
63
|
|
Jun
|
71
|
|
Jul
|
75
|
|
Aug
|
74
|
|
Sep
|
88
|
|
Oct
|
93
|
|
Nov
|
95
|
|
Dec
|
102
|
a. Using Excel, create a linear regression equation to model the number of calls per month.
b. At the current rate of growth, how many telemedicine calls does the regression equation predict for June of year 2?
c. Given your prediction for June of year 2, how many telemedicine nurses do you forecast will be needed per 12 hour shift to handle the load?
Submit your findings in a Word document and include the Excel spread sheet.