TOPIC OUTLINE
CRITICAL THINKING
OVERVIEW OF FISCAL MANAGEMENT
Resources, such as personnel, supplies, and equipment, are critical to accomplishing
the goals and objectives in a health care delivery organization. The two major
functions that are important are budgeting and resource allocation (particularly staff).
Nursing managers are involved in all aspects of resource management. Successful
resource management is supportive of a fiscally strong organization and quality care.
FISCAL PLANNING
Fiscal planning is the formal plan for managing the financial resources. The balance
of expenditures and revenues are projected during a specific period of time, usually
annually. Allocation of projected expenses is also part of the budget. Goals and
objectives are critical to the development of a realistic budget, as well as the
monitoring of the budgetary expenses through control procedure.
The goal of fiscal management is to maintain fiscal records and procedures of the
agency that provides protection for the resources of the agency as well as records and
procedures which generate economy, effectiveness and efficiency of the operation.
1. Record keeping which protects the agency and its clients from misuses and/or
abuse of its resources.
4. Fiscal record keeping that provides the agency’s constituents and the general
public with accountability for its operations in an easily understandable format.
TRADITIONAL APPROACHES
The purpose of fiscal management is to handle and be responsible for all money
matters (financial records, accounting, collections, controls, investments
expenditures conformed to laws and administrative directives, property
inventories, debt services and other items and value. (Hjelte and Shivers, 1973)
CREATIVE APPROACHES
This includes the responsibility of aggressively seeking out resources for the
agency and exploiting them for the benefit of the agency, staff and consumers. A
Nursing Budget allocates resources for nursing programs and activities to deliver
patient care during a fiscal year. (Hjelte and Shivers, 1973)
FISCAL YEAR
Is the accounting period covering twelve (12) consecutive months over
which a company determines earnings and profits. The fiscal year serves as a
period of reference for the company and does not necessarily correspond to the
calendar year.
5. Influences and inspires group members to become active in short and long
range fiscal planning.
DEFINITIONS OF A BUDGET
A Budget is the annual operating plan, a financial “road map” and a plan which
serves as an estimate of future costs and a plan for utilization of manpower,
material and other resources to cover capital projects in the operating programs.
A Budget Plan for health care institutions, which is simply a plan for future
activities, generally consists of Four Components:
Budget functions are to plan, manage ongoing activities, and control spending.
The organization must consider the following questions during all phases of budget
planning.
• Do the benefits justify the costs?
• Is the budget consistent with the organization’s goals and objectives?
• Is the budget reasonable and realistic?
• Will the organization revenues be able to support the budget?
BUDGET APPROACHES
1. Review health facilities vision, mission, objectives and its relation to the
importance of budgeting.
E.g. 1.Review of stock levels of hospital supplies to ensure that they are not wasted
and misused.
b. Monitor Spending
Keep a file of all budget statements received; expenditures trends can be
highlighted and examined.
TYPES OF BUDGETING
The two most basic types of budgeting are the CENTRALIZED and
DECENTRALIZED approaches to budgets.
1. Manpower Budget – this consists of the wages and salaries of the regular
employees and the fees paid to outside registries through which the
institution contracts short-term employees.
TYPES OF BUDGET
BUDGETARY PROCESS
The budgetary process involves determining and developing a plan for the area of
responsibility and reviewing, analyzing, and controlling the operation and plans of
the Department. This can be done by:
HENRY PAUL M. SANTOS, RN, MAN, DMS
FISCAL MANAGEMENT IN NURSING SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
University Of Makati-College of Nursing
2008
11
3. Review current appropriations and actual expenditures for the current year.
4. Study proposed changes in other departments which might affect the nursing
service budget.
5. Estimate required expenditures for the coming year for supplies, materials,
equipment, repairs and replacement.
6. Estimate personnel salaries and benefits, as well as, savings derived from
unusual leaves.
8. Translate information into pesos and submit official forms to the Chief of
Hospital for approval and inclusion in the general hospital budget.
The budgetary process is an ongoing one. It begins with the identification of who is
responsible for developing and monitoring the budget. Ultimately, the
organization’s governing board is responsible, but many of the administrative staff
members participate and have responsibilities, including the chief executive
officer, chief fiscal officer, nurse executive, and managers. Operational goals and
objectives are set that correspond with the organization’s mission, goals and
objectives, as well as the organization’s strategic and operational plans. It is easy to
view the budget as another paper report or plan, but it must be a live document,
one that changes as needed, and it must be monitored. A cost center is a unit or
department within an organization that has specified expenses.
Examples of this would be the cardiac care unit, the pharmacy department, nursing
services, or admissions. Each one would have a budget that would then be used to
develop the overall budget for the organization.
Budgeting today generally reflects all inputs from all levels of the
organization.
2. Develop a plan.
Fiscal year may not coincide with the calendar is then broken down into
quarters or subdivided into monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual periods.
4. Evaluation
Each senior nurse / supervising nurse develops a budget plan for the area of
responsibility every quarter of the ensuing year with the first quarter broken down
into months.
The budget plan should include the number and the kind of personnel, their
salaries, fringe benefits, the number of patients to be served, the activities within
the area, and the kind of care the patients are supposed to receive.
Operating expenses shall include among other things, the number and the kind of
supplies, repairs maintenance, books, and in service education
Table 1.
Income : P900,000
Expenditure:
HENRY PAUL M. SANTOS, RN, MAN, DMS
FISCAL MANAGEMENT IN NURSING SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
University Of Makati-College of Nursing
2008
14
Salaries P350,000
Purchases P50,000
Rent P 50,000
Total: P450,000
A reporting system is devised such that monthly reports show how much has been
spent on what and whether it exceeded the budget or not. Over expenditure must be
controlled.
Review the plan for maximum efficiency and cost saving or corrective actions.
There are several advantages derived from the budgeting process. Budgeting
affords planning, coordination and comprehensive control of resources.
planning such as the volume and type of services, the number and type of
personnel as well as the volume and the type of equipment and supplies
required as well as the corresponding cost. The process likewise stimulates
action and interaction with all concerned parties. From the process of
budgeting one can learn a good deal about planning.
2. Coordination – Budgeting also encourages coordination among the
different persons involved in the process, from the top to bottom. It has a
balancing effect on the total and the expected venue. The continuous
exchange of information up and down the organizational ladder is
encouraged, and in many instances the team approach is stimulated or
developed.
The basic factors to be considered in budget planning are the type of patient/s,
the kind or class of the hospital, the policies on personnel and equipment,
standards of nursing care and nursing supervision.
1. PATIENT
Categorizing the patient is made through the type of care given by the
physician such as medical, surgical, maternity, pediatric, and geriatric
among others. The method of patient assignment can be functional, case,
team, or primary. The severity of the illness serves as the basis for length of
stay in the hospital.
The available facilities and resources with which to address the needs of the
patient are also factors in budget planning. In nursing management, these
concerns include the size of the hospital, specifically its bed occupancy and
capacity. Bed capacity must be enough to accommodate the possible
number of patients. Other aspects of a hospital to be considered include its
physical layout, the size of the wards or units, the Nurse's Station, the
treatment rooms, and other relevant facilities and resources available such as
equipment and supplies.
3. PERSONNEL
These facilities would be useless without the personnel to utilize them, and
so it is important to be well-acquainted with personnel policies in place,
such as the salaries paid to nursing personnel, leave benefits enjoyed by the
personnel, i.e. whether these leaves are confined to those required by law or
include others, and provisions for staff development programs including
instructional staff and training structures available, e.g. periodic seminars for
staff.
This consists of the cost of training and maintaining personnel and acquiring
equipment that will be needed by the health care facility, based on the
volume of patients and the nature of their needs.
It begins with documentation of the nursing care method employed which
refers to reports. The manager determines whether the method of patient
3. Compute the salary and non-salary budget including salary increases and
other various factors.
4. Monitor the variance over the budget period and identify negative variances
responding promptly and appropriately.
6. Encourage the staff to monitor resources used including time and supplies.
2. Personnel policies such as hours/day on duty per week, vacation, sick leaves,
Medicare/Philhealth.
CLASSIFICATION OF COSTS
Fixed: A cost that does not change with volume, which is typically the number of
clients. Examples of fixed costs are installment payments for equipment and
overhead expenses.
Variable: A cost that changes based on volume. Examples of variable cost are
those items used in the operating room, which would change based on the type
and number of cases, medication, and, in some cases, staff costs.
Direct: Costs that can be identified for a specific service or product.
Indirect: Costs that cannot be linked or associated with any specific service or
product. Office supplies are a good example. For example, it is difficult to say
that the use of office supplies is associated with the revenue or income associated
with treating 10 cardiac clients.
Fee-for-service: The provider charges for services given and is paid by the
insurer (or in some cases, the client may pay, but that is less common). The
method was the traditional payment method, but is not used as much today.
Per Diem rates: payment that is fixed and based on each day of service, such
as $600 per day in the hospital.
Case rates: Payment that is based on the type of case, such as a flat fee for an
appendectomy or vaginal delivery.
Various types of reports that are important in the budgetary for health care
organization include:
Budget variance report: Describes the status of the budget, what has been
spent, and the revenues. A monthly review of the budget is critical in the ability
of an organization to stay on the target with the budget. Is the unit spending too
much money or below what is expected? These are the variances, the difference
between the projected and the actual expenditures in the budget. Managers need
to analyze them and determined the causes for the variances. Adjustments may
need to be made in the budget, or in the implementation of the budget. Are
revenues below what was expected? For example, are there fewer admissions?
This can be a major problem for management.
Productivity report: Provide data about the number of staff hours worked per
unit of service (such as client days or client visits) in terms of allocation of
human resources.
Payroll report: Cites employee earning and hours worked per day period and
consider in such factors as vacation and sick time.
Supply variance report: Lists the utilization of supplies and compares it with
the budgeted amount.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Productivity
productivity requires reviews of budget, client acuity system, personnel and level of
staffing, client satisfaction, and quality improvement monitoring.
Effectiveness and efficiency are important elements of productivity.
Effectiveness is taking the necessary steps to achieve objectives. It is a managerial
goal. Critical sources of data about effectiveness include quality improvement data,
performance appraisal, evaluation of nursing care provided, and the data from external
reviews, such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care
Organizations. Efficiency is doing the right things correctly. It integrates effectiveness
and economy, meeting the outcomes with the minimum resources to reach goal.
Staffing and scheduling are important functions that directly impact the
quality of patient care. Staff member are concerned about their schedules,
workload, and the amount of time and staff that are available for the client.
Scheduling is done in many different ways. Scheduling may be centralized,
done by a nursing service or a specific office for the entire health care
organization; or decentralized, which means the divisions or units of the
organization do it. A third type of scheduling is self-scheduling, whereby
staffing criteria are developed and mutually agreed upon by the staff. Staff
members appoint the schedule themselves, which often requires negotiation
HENRY PAUL M. SANTOS, RN, MAN, DMS
FISCAL MANAGEMENT IN NURSING SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
University Of Makati-College of Nursing
2008
23
and cooperation of the person involved. Self scheduling has been very
successful in many setting due to the autonomy and self-determination
involved. Additionally, self-scheduling facilitates work attendance.
For example, the client census is 20; the number of nursing care hours
needed for each acuity level and the number of client at each level is as
follows:
Now we can calculate the number of nursing care hours per client: The total
number of nursing care hours equals 67.5 hours. This was determined by
multiplying each category ( acuity level ) by the number of clients falling
into that category ( Step 1 ), and adding all of the hours from the four
categories together ( Step 2 ). Then, the total number of nursing care hours is
divided by the number of clients (Step 3).
Step 1
Multiply each category (acuity level) by the number of clients falling into
that category.
Do the math:
Category I = 2.3 hrs. x 8 clients = 18.4 hrs.
Category II = 3.0 hrs. x 4 clients = 12 hrs.
Category III = 4.2 hrs. x 4 clients = 16.8 hrs.
Category IV = 5.1 hrs. x 4 clients = 20.4 hrs.
HENRY PAUL M. SANTOS, RN, MAN, DMS
FISCAL MANAGEMENT IN NURSING SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
University Of Makati-College of Nursing
2008
26
Step 2
Then add all of the hours from the four categories together.
18.4 + 12 + 16.8 + 20.4 = 65.3 hours
Step 3
Divide the total number of nursing care hours by the number of clients
receiving care. The total hours are 67.5 divided by 20 clients equals, 3.38
hours per client for that day.
67.5 (Nursing Care Hours)
_____________________ = 3.38
20(Client census)
Nursing units are generally budgeted at so many hours per client per day.
Calculating the number of nursing care hours required for any given day can
assist the manager in determining if the unit is understaffed or overstaffed.
FINAL EXAMINATION
Answer the following comprehensively:
1. Why is it essential to consider goals and objectives when developing a
unit budget?
2. What does the nurse manager need to do during each phase of the
budgetary process?
a. Planning
b. Organizing and staffing
c. Directing
d. Controlling
6. As you consider productivity for a hospital unit, what are three examples
of outputs that would be important to review?
7. If you have (a) some staff members who work 8-hour shifts based on 5-
day workweeks, (b) some who work evenings and nights in the same pay
period, and (c) others who work the 12-hour shifts based on 3-day
workweeks, what types of scheduling do these staff members have?