In: Accounting
Current Situation
You are and Vice President and CFO at Warrington Regional Hospital, a not-for-profit tertiary care facility with 225 beds located in a growing city in Southern California. The chair of the board of directors has informed you that the board, in concert with local community and political leadership, believes the hospital should consider expanding services. They want you to analyze the financial feasibility of either building an ambulatory orthopedic center on a parcel of land located 31 miles northeast of the hospital near a large housing development currently under construction or adding a new wing containing 25 beds onto the hospital. The land for the new ambulatory orthopedic center is owned by the county and they have indicated a willingness to lease it to the hospital for $1 per year on a 99-year lease. On the surface, both projects appear to be sound investments but only one can be undertaken. Before deciding, the board and other stakeholders want to understand the financial consequences of the alternatives and expect a recommendation based on the analysis.
The Board’s Requirements
The board is requesting a study covering the first 5 years of the new initiative, including construction time. At a minimum, the board seeks the NPV and IRR for each option. Detail should be calculated and presented at the annual level. Ultimately, the board is looking for your recommendation with a detailed supporting explanation. How you choose to summarize your recommendation has not been specified but the more clearly you present your findings, the better it will be received. The material should be prepared as if it will be given to the Board of Directors for their consideration and decision.
Your Approach
You assemble a team from your finance and administrative staff and begin by preparing a work plan showing the steps you will follow to meet the objective. A critical early step will be to estimate cash flows (revenues and expenses) for the first five years of each alternative (including the year for construction). In addition, the team must make and document key assumptions that will be used in the analysis. After working on the problem for 30 days, the team publishes its financial projection data assumptions for comment. Once the discussions with key stakeholders have concluded, these data are finalized, and the analysis commences. The approved data is summarized in the table that follows. Note that if you believe there are assumptions missing you are free to define and use reasonable ones in your work, however they must be specifically identified and justified.
Warrington Regional Hospital
Financial Assumptions
New Wing Assumptions |
Orthopedic Center Assumptions |
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Cost to construct and equip |
$11,250,000 |
Cost to construct and equip |
$2,500,000 |
Months to construct and equip |
12 |
Months to construct and equip |
12 |
Avg. occupied beds per mo. in year 1 |
9 |
Avg. patient visits per mo. in year 1 |
300 |
Revenue per occupied bed per mo. in year 1 |
$69,000 |
Revenue per patient per visit in year 1 |
$1,900 |
Fixed cost per mo. |
$46,800 |
Fixed cost per mo. |
$9,400 |
Variable cost per mo. per occupied bed |
$1,400 |
Variable cost per visit per mo. |
$850 |
Annual rate of increase for all costs |
2.5% |
Annual rate of increase in all costs |
2.5% |
Annual rate of increase in the occupancy rate |
2.3% |
Annual rate of increase in number of visits |
2.4% |
For both options, assume that:
New Wing | ||||||
Years | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Cost of Construction | -11250000 | |||||
Revenue | 7452000 | 7623396 | 7798734 | 7978105 | 8161601 | |
(9*12*69000) | Year 1 * 102.3% | Year 2 * 102.3% | Year 3 * 102.3% | Year 4 * 102.3% | ||
Variable Cost | -151200 | -158545 | -166246 | -174321 | -182789 | |
(9*12*1400) | Year 1 * 102.3% * 102.5% | Year 2 * 102.3% * 102.5% | Year 3 * 102.3% * 102.5% | Year 4 * 102.3% * 102.5% | ||
Fixed Cost | -561600 | -575640 | -590031 | -604782 | -619901 | |
(46800*12) | Year 1 * 102.5% | Year 2 * 102.5% | Year 3 * 102.5% | Year 4 * 102.5% | ||
Total Cashflows | -11250000 | 6739200 | 6889211 | 7042457 | 7199002 | 7358911 |
PV Factor @ 5.5% | 1.0000 | 0.9479 | 0.8985 | 0.8516 | 0.8072 | 0.7651 |
PV of cash flows | -11250000 | 6387867 | 6189629 | 5997453 | 5811155 | 5630556 |
NPV of New Wing Option | 18766660 | |||||
(IRR is the internal rate of return, calculated on total cash flows) | ||||||
0=NPV=t=1∑T(1+IRR)tCt−C0 | ||||||
Ct: Net cash flow during the period | ||||||
C0: Cash outflow during the beginning of the period | ||||||
t= number of time periods | ||||||
IRR of New Wing Option | 55% | |||||
Orthopedic Centre | ||||||
Years | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Cost of Construction | -2500000 | |||||
Revenue | 6840000 | 7004160 | 7172260 | 7344394 | 7520660 | |
(300*12*1900) | Year 1 * 102.4% | Year 2 * 102.4% | Year 3 * 102.4% | Year 4 * 102.4% | ||
Variable Cost | -3060000 | -3211776 | -3371080 | -3538286 | -3713785 | |
(300*12*850) | Year 1 * 102.4% * 102.5% | Year 2 * 102.4% * 102.5% | Year 3 * 102.4% * 102.5% | Year 4 * 102.4% * 102.5% | ||
Fixed Cost | -112800 | -115620 | -118510.5 | -121473 | -124510 | |
(9400*12) | Year 1 * 102.5% | Year 2 * 102.5% | Year 3 * 102.5% | Year 4 * 102.5% | ||
Total Cashflows | -2500000 | 3667200 | 3676764 | 3682669 | 3684635 | 3682365 |
PV Factor @ 5.5% | 1.0000 | 0.9479 | 0.8985 | 0.8516 | 0.8072 | 0.7651 |
PV of cash flows | -2500000 | 3476019 | 3303397 | 3136211 | 2974299 | 2817504 |
NPV of Orthopedic centre Option | 13207431 | |||||
IRR of New Wing Option | 145% |
Conclusion : Since the NPV of new wing option is higher than Orthopedic center option, thus it is advisable to go with new wing option to earn more cash return during the tenure of 5 months. However IRR of orthopedic center option is higher which means that for every 1 rupee investment we are earning 1.45 rupees, thus orthopedic center option is much beneficial only if the option is scalable for higher amount of investment.