CHFM Administration and Human Resources 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A facility manager must ensure compliance with CMS Conditions of Participation. Which primary consequence can result from a hospital's failure to meet these federal standards?
- Loss of Joint Commission accreditation only
- Termination of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement (Correct answer)
- Mandatory facility closure by the state health department
- OSHA citations and financial penalties
Correct answer: Termination of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement
Failure to comply with CMS Conditions of Participation can result in termination of a hospital's Medicare and Medicaid provider agreement, cutting off a major revenue source.
Question 2: When preparing the annual facilities management budget, which approach uses prior-year actual expenses as the baseline and adjusts for anticipated changes?
- Zero-based budgeting
- Activity-based budgeting
- Incremental budgeting (Correct answer)
- Capital budgeting
Correct answer: Incremental budgeting
Incremental budgeting starts with the prior year's budget or actuals and makes adjustments for inflation, new initiatives, or cost changes.
Question 3: A healthcare organization's HR department is investigating a sexual harassment complaint. Which principle is MOST critical to maintain throughout the investigation process?
- Speed of resolution above all other factors
- Confidentiality and impartiality for all parties (Correct answer)
- Immediate termination of the accused
- Public disclosure to deter future incidents
Correct answer: Confidentiality and impartiality for all parties
Maintaining confidentiality protects all parties involved and ensures an impartial investigation that is legally defensible and fair.
Question 4: A facility manager notices that a department consistently exceeds its labor budget due to high overtime. Which operational change would MOST directly address this root cause?
- Reducing the number of approved vacation days
- Reviewing and adjusting staff scheduling to better match patient census (Correct answer)
- Increasing the base hourly wage to reduce turnover
- Implementing stricter attendance disciplinary policies
Correct answer: Reviewing and adjusting staff scheduling to better match patient census
Aligning staffing schedules with actual patient census and workload patterns is the most direct way to reduce unplanned overtime costs.
Question 5: Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which activity is protected for healthcare employees even in a non-union facility?
- Individual negotiation of personal salary increases
- Concerted activity with coworkers to improve working conditions (Correct answer)
- Refusing to perform all assigned job duties
- Publicly disparaging the organization's management to the media
Correct answer: Concerted activity with coworkers to improve working conditions
The NLRA protects 'concerted activity,' which includes employees acting together to address wages, hours, or working conditions, regardless of union status.
Question 6: Which performance management tool involves gathering feedback about an employee from multiple sources including supervisors, peers, subordinates, and sometimes patients or customers?
- Management by objectives (MBO)
- 360-degree feedback assessment (Correct answer)
- Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS)
- Critical incident method
Correct answer: 360-degree feedback assessment
A 360-degree feedback assessment collects performance data from all directions in the organizational hierarchy as well as from external stakeholders.
Question 7: A CHFM is developing an emergency operations plan (EOP). Which framework, adopted by FEMA, provides a standardized approach to incident command that healthcare facilities should align with?
- National Incident Management System (NIMS) (Correct answer)
- Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEICS)
- Incident Action Plan (IAP) Framework
- CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule §482.15
Correct answer: National Incident Management System (NIMS)
NIMS provides the standardized national framework for emergency management, and CMS requires hospitals to align their emergency operations plans with NIMS principles.
CHFM Administration and Human Resources 5
A facility manager must ensure compliance with CMS Conditions of Participation.
Which primary consequence can result from a hospital's failure to meet these federal standards?