Hospital maintenance FTE

Answer 1

An FTE, or Full Time Equivalent, is a method of comparing full and part time positions to each other. For example, two half time positions is the same as one full time position when calculating position equivalents. It is often used in position control to determine how many people are needed versus how much time is needed.

One FTE is calculated like this:

8 Hours per day X 5 Days per week X 52 Weeks = 2,080 Hours = 1 FTE

If someone worked 6 hours a day, that would be

6 Hours per day X 5 Days per week X 52 Weeks = 1,560 Hours = .75 FTE

If the department needed someone working six hours in the morning, four hours in the afternoon, and 4 hours in the evening, it would look like this:

6 Hours per day X 5 Days per week X 52 Weeks = 1,560 Hours = .75 FTE

4 Hours per day X 5 Days per week X 52 Weeks = 1,040 Hours = .50 FTE

4 Hours per day X 5 Days per week X 52 Weeks = 1,040 Hours = .50 FTE

Total 14 hours per day or 1.75 FTEs

And so it goes. For calculation of FTEs it doesn't matter whether there are three people working the total of 14 hours or one person working 8 hours and another 6 hours or even 7 people working 2 hours each. It gives the manager more flexibility in hiring and scheduling while still being able to control total staffing and costs.

Note that this calculates "Paid FTEs" because it doesn't take vacations, sick time, or holidays into consideration. "Worked FTEs", based on actual time on the job, is also sometimes used, depending on the goal of the analysis.