| Course | NU 651 Leading and Managing in Complex Organizations |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Capital request memo |
| Length | About 810 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Business memo with analysis, APA 7 references |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU 651 Unit 5
Memorandum
To: System Capital Committee
From: Director of Patient Flow, on behalf of the Hospital President and Chief Nursing Officer
Date: February 20, 2026
Re: Request for $380,000 to build a 12-chair discharge lounge; decision needed at the April 15 meeting
The Request
$380,000 to renovate 1,100 square feet of former outpatient laboratory waiting space into a 12-chair discharge lounge, with ongoing operating cost of about $180,000 a year, which the hospital will fund from its operating budget. The lounge frees inpatient beds about three and a half hours earlier for roughly 14 patients a day, the equivalent of adding two inpatient beds, at about one quarter of the capital cost of building them.
The Need, in This Hospital's Figures
Over the past 12 months, admitted patients boarded in our emergency department for a median of 6.2 hours before an inpatient bed was available, the second longest in the system. On a typical weekday at 4 p.m., 11 admitted patients are boarding. At the same time, an audit of four medical-surgical units over 20 weekdays found an average of 14 patients a day who had a discharge order but remained in their inpatient bed for more than two hours, most often waiting for a ride, discharge medications, or paperwork. Their median wait was about three and a half hours. Longer boarding has been associated with higher inpatient mortality (Singer et al., 2011), and boarding reflects the availability of inpatient beds rather than emergency department performance (Asplin et al., 2003).
What the Money Buys
Renovation of the space with 12 recliner chairs, a nurse station, a bathroom that meets accessibility standards, oxygen and suction outlets, and a patient pickup entrance next to the existing drop-off lane. One RN and one technician will run it on weekdays, opening mid-morning and closing at half past six. Patients are eligible only when the attending physician has written the discharge order and the unit charge nurse, using criteria the charge nurses wrote, judges them stable to wait there. Other hospitals have reported using nurse-staffed lounges of this kind as a patient flow measure (Woods et al., 2020).
What It Returns
Fourteen patients a day moving out about three and a half hours earlier frees about 49 inpatient bed-hours a day, roughly two beds' worth of capacity during the afternoon, when boarding peaks. For comparison, the system's most recent bed expansion added 24 beds for about $18 million, about $750,000 per bed; two beds by construction would cost about $1.5 million. The lounge achieves similar afternoon capacity for $380,000 in capital. We will not claim a specific reduction in boarding hours or a revenue figure, because the effect depends on how many of the freed beds are filled from the emergency department rather than from elective surgery. We will report actual results to the committee after six and twelve months: lounge patients per day, hours each bed was freed early, emergency department boarding at 4 p.m., and any lounge patient who needed to return to an inpatient bed or was readmitted within 30 days. If use falls below eight patients a day for three consecutive months, the hospital will reduce the staffed hours rather than continue the full cost.
What It Costs Beyond Capital
Operating: about $172,000 a year for 1.06 full-time equivalent registered nurse and 1.06 full-time equivalent patient care technician, plus about $8,000 a year in supplies. The hospital's chief financial officer has agreed to fund these from the operating budget, in part by converting vacant float pool positions. The space: the vice president of support services has agreed to release it; storage currently there will move to an off-site facility the hospital already leases.
How This Request Compares With Others in the Pool
The committee has $4.0 million available this cycle against $4.83 million in requests, including this one: replacement of intensive care unit monitors at one hospital, $1.2 million; a second MRI scanner at another, $2.8 million; and parking lot resurfacing, $450,000. We would rank the monitor replacement above our request, since equipment reaching the end of its supported life is a patient safety issue. Compared with the MRI, our request is smaller, does not generate direct revenue, and addresses the boarding measure on the system dashboard that the board reviews each quarter. If the committee must reduce the total by $830,000, deferring or phasing larger projects would leave room for this request; our project cannot be phased, since a partial lounge would not be usable.
The Cost of Not Doing It
Without the lounge, about 14 patients a day continue to occupy beds they no longer need while about 11 admitted patients wait in the emergency department each afternoon. The alternatives available without capital, better discharge planning and earlier physician rounding, are already being pursued and are expected to reduce, not remove, the afternoon peak.
Support
Letters of support are attached from the hospital president, the chief nursing officer, the chief financial officer, the emergency department medical director, and the hospitalist group director, and from the charge nurses of the four medical-surgical units, who wrote the eligibility criteria.
References
Asplin, B. R., Magid, D. J., Rhodes, K. V., Solberg, L. I., Lurie, N., & Camargo, C. A., Jr. (2003). A conceptual model of emergency department crowding. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 42(2), 173-180. https://doi.org/10.1067/mem.2003.302
Singer, A. J., Thode, H. C., Jr., Viccellio, P., & Pines, J. M. (2011). The association between length of emergency department boarding and mortality. Academic Emergency Medicine, 18(12), 1324-1329. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1553-2712.2011.01236.x
Woods, R., Sandoval, R., Vermillion, G., Bates-Jackson, B., Nwankwo, A., Canamar, C. P., & Sarff, L. (2020). The discharge lounge: A patient flow process solution. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 35(3), 240-244. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000469
The Herzing NU 651 Unit 5 instructions
Unit 5 asks you to write a capital request that competes with other projects for limited funds. Expect to state the request and amount, establish need with local data, explain what the money buys, estimate the return, include operating costs, compare the request with competing priorities and describe the cost of not funding it. Many versions use a memo format with headings. Check whether your section specifies a template or word limit. Use realistic cost figures, citing sources or stating assumptions. Return can be financial, clinical or capacity-based, as long as it is explained. Being honest about other requests in the pool makes the case more credible to a committee, so show where yours ranks and why.
Inside the NU 651 Unit 5 example
The memo opens with the amount and what it buys in a single sentence, the way capital committees prefer. The need section uses the hospital's own boarding and discharge data. The purchase section lists the renovation's components. The return section converts earlier departures into bed-hours and capacity, showing the arithmetic. Operating costs are separated from capital, which many requests forget. The comparison section names the other requests and explains where this one fits, acknowledging that monitor replacement may rank higher for safety. The cost of not acting is stated in patients and hours. The support section lists letters from executives and physicians, showing the request has backing beyond nursing. Every figure is either from hospital data or a cited source.
Where the points sit in the NU 651 Unit 5 rubric
Herzing's rubric for a capital request generally scores the clarity of the request, the needs justification, the cost analysis, the expected return, the comparison with alternatives, stakeholder support and professional writing. Needs points require local data rather than national averages. Cost criteria reward complete capital and operating figures with every assumption stated. Return usually weighs heavily; full marks require memos that put numbers on bed-hours, patients or dollars and show the arithmetic. The comparison criterion looks for honest positioning against competing priorities, even when another request may rank higher. Support points go to evidence of buy-in from executives and physicians. Professional writing covers memo format, concision and APA 7 citations, including Woods and colleagues' study of a discharge lounge's effect on capacity.
NU 651 Unit 5 help: mistakes that cost points
Capital requests in Unit 5 frequently lose points by burying the amount and purpose in the third paragraph. Another frequent issue is omitting ongoing operating cost, which committees always ask about before anything else. Students often cite national boarding data without local figures, so the need looks borrowed. Returns stated as improves patient satisfaction, with no numbers, are hard to compare with a monitor replacement that has a clear safety case. Ignoring competing requests makes the memo seem naive about how committees decide. Arithmetic errors undermine credibility quickly. Some memos run long with background a committee does not need. Finally, show support from people outside nursing, because a request that only one department wants is easy for a committee to defer to the next cycle.
Get a NU 651 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 5 instructions and the rubric from your NU 651 classroom, plus what you are asking for and any cost figures you are permitted to use. We write a custom example with the ask stated first, costs split into purchase, recurring and staffing, and the competing projects named, returned in 24 to 48 hours. The first custom sample is free.
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NU 651 Unit 5 questions, answered
Where do the cost figures come from?
Published list prices, vendor quotes your instructor allows, or clearly labeled estimates built from comparable purchases. What matters more than precision is that every number carries a stated origin and that the categories are complete. Do not lift figures out of your employer's capital process without permission, and never invent a quote and attribute it to a named vendor.
Should the bid include a return calculation?
Include one where the instructions ask for it and where the benefit is genuinely financial, showing the arithmetic instead of a single percentage. Many worthwhile requests in health care do not pay for themselves, and a bid that manufactures a return for one of them is easy to take apart. Argue those on capacity, risk or obligation, and say plainly that the payback is not monetary.
How honest should I be about the competing requests?
More honest than feels comfortable. Naming the other credible bids and conceding what is strong about one of them separates a proposal from advocacy, and committees read a great deal of advocacy. It also lets you argue sequence rather than merit, which is often the winnable argument: not that the other project is unworthy, but that this one has to come first.
Where can I find a free NU 651 Unit 5 sample paper?
This page carries the whole NU 651 Unit 5 discharge lounge capital memo without charge, need, costs, return and the honest comparison. A custom capital request can be written for your own project and cost figures.
How do I write a capital budget request for a nursing project?
Lead with the amount and purpose, show need with local data, itemize capital and operating costs, quantify the return, compare honestly with competing requests and list support. This discharge lounge memo follows that order in about 800 words.