NURS FPX 6216 Assessment 3 Budget Negotiations and Communication

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX 6216 Advanced Finance and Operations Management

Prof. Name

Date

Budget Negotiations and Communication

This paper outlines an executive summary justifying the operating budget developed for St. Anthony Medical Center (SAMC), focusing on a 35-bed unit. The primary goal is to secure funding in an environment with limited resources by presenting a strategic plan, addressing staff productivity goals, and justifying the associated costs. The budget aligns with SAMC’s mission, ensuring fiscal responsibility while maintaining high standards of patient care. This summary demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed budget in securing funding for operational needs and highlights how it supports SAMC’s overall goals.

Strategic Plan for Profitability and Success

SAMC’s strategic plan for its 35-bed unit focuses on ensuring profitability and fiscal success by carefully balancing operational costs with revenue-generating strategies. The projected net revenue for the unit is $1,350,000, with total expenses of $202,000. SAMC faces challenges such as high staff turnover, which leads to increased workload and inefficient shift management. The unit primarily caters to elderly patients, requiring careful and critical care that necessitates sufficient staffing levels to avoid burnout and uphold high care standards. A key element of the plan is optimizing staff productivity through targeted training and resource allocation, directly improving patient care and operational efficiency (Bhati, 2023).

Additionally, utilizing advanced data analytics to monitor financial performance and patient outcomes allows for real-time adjustments to the budget, ensuring continuous alignment with SAMC’s mission and goals. However, to enhance the plan, certain knowledge gaps need to be addressed. For instance, obtaining detailed patient demographic data would improve demand forecasting, which is critical for staffing and supply chain management (Geiger et al., 2023). Also, comparing SAMC’s financial performance with similar healthcare facilities through benchmarking data will help refine assumptions and identify cost-saving opportunities. Additionally, establishing clear metrics to evaluate the impact of staff productivity initiatives on financial performance and patient satisfaction is crucial, as these areas are currently underdeveloped (De Rosis et al., 2022). By addressing these gaps through ongoing data collection and feedback, SAMC can refine its strategic plan, ensuring fiscal responsibility and quality care delivery.

Plan for Staff Productivity Goals

SAMC’s workforce management plan aims to meet staff productivity goals while maintaining budgetary constraints. This plan focuses on reducing staff turnover, optimizing scheduling, and enhancing staff development, thereby ensuring efficient resource utilization without compromising care quality (Koruca et al., 2023). SAMC recognizes the challenges posed by high turnover and the over-reliance on overtime, which strains both the budget and staff productivity. To address this, SAMC will implement workforce management software to automate scheduling and forecast potential overtime costs. This tool will improve shift allocation, ensuring that staffing levels are optimized in line with patient needs while minimizing unnecessary overtime (Koruca et al., 2023). Research indicates that work-life balance is vital for healthcare staff, including physicians, nurses, and technicians, as it promotes consistent and careful care delivery (Sánchez et al., 2020).

By automating scheduling, SAMC will reduce manual errors and enhance shift distribution, improving work-life balance and reducing burnout and turnover. SAMC will also align its staff development efforts with the hospital’s needs by offering educational and certification opportunities to enhance competencies. These initiatives, focusing on critical care, nursing specialties, and surgical operations, aim to improve patient outcomes and support SAMC’s mission to provide high-quality healthcare services (Xuecheng et al., 2022). Additionally, SAMC plans to invest in digital solutions, such as electronic health records (EHR) and telehealth, to streamline operations and improve patient care in the long term. Although these technologies involve initial costs, they are expected to reduce administrative burdens, enhance data accuracy, and improve patient outcomes through better access to information and remote care options (Paul et al., 2023).

Rationale for Rejecting Alternative Approaches

One alternative approach that was considered and rejected is increasing staffing levels to meet productivity goals. However, within the current budget constraints, this option would significantly increase salary and benefit expenses, without necessarily leading to a proportional improvement in productivity. The focus, instead, is on optimizing current staff through better management and development rather than merely increasing the number of personnel (Gal et al., 2022). Another alternative, outsourcing clinical services, was also rejected due to concerns over quality. While outsourcing can offer short-term savings, it undermines the continuity and consistency of care, which can damage patient trust. Patients generally prefer continuity of care provided by familiar staff, rather than outsourced personnel, making this approach less feasible for SAMC (Berry et al., 2021).

Equipment and Service Cost Justification

Justifying equipment and service costs within SAMC’s budget involves essential expenditures to maintain operational efficiency and provide high-quality patient care. The budget allocates $30,000 for medical supplies and $8,000 for facility rent. These expenditures are critical for maintaining the hospital’s ability to serve patients effectively. Research shows that inefficient systems can cost up to 10% of patient-generated revenue, so investing in modern equipment and services is expected to improve both operational efficiency and patient outcomes (Bravo et al., 2021). SAMC also allocates $13,000 for outsourced services, including cleaning and IT services, which are necessary for maintaining a reliable and clean operational environment.

These services contribute to the overall capacity to meet patient needs efficiently (Bravo et al., 2021). While these costs may seem substantial, they are integral to SAMC’s mission of providing high-quality healthcare services. For example, modern IT services improve data management, reduce administrative burdens, and facilitate better access to patient information, all of which improve care coordination and reduce errors (Cabán et al., 2022). The assumptions underlying these budgeted costs include stable patient volumes and market conditions, which are necessary for accurate forecasting. Investing in modern equipment and services is anticipated to lead to improved operational efficiency, enhanced staff productivity, and better patient outcomes.

The Linkage Between the Organization’s Mission and the Project

SAMC’s mission is to provide high-quality, patient-focused care. The organization’s financial goal is to maintain fiscal responsibility, while its strategic goal is to provide optimal, patient-centered care through efficient resource allocation and staff development. SAMC’s operational budget supports this mission by ensuring investments in critical areas, such as medical supplies, facility rent, and outsourced services, which are essential for maintaining high standards of care. For example, the $30,000 allocated for medical supplies and $8,000 for facility rent ensures that the hospital’s 35-bed unit is well-equipped to meet the needs of its aging population (Homauni et al., 2023). Additionally, the allocation of $13,000 for outsourced services supports SAMC’s goal of maintaining a clean, efficient, and technologically advanced facility. These investments help streamline operations and reduce administrative burdens, ultimately allowing staff to focus on patient care, which aligns with SAMC’s mission (Bhati, 2023). Furthermore, by addressing staff turnover and overtime issues through strategic resource allocation for training and development, SAMC is ensuring long-term sustainability and consistency in the delivery of high-quality care (Vries et al., 2023). Ultimately, SAMC’s budget is designed to align with its mission, ensuring that resources are effectively allocated to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Conclusion

The proposed budget for SAMC has been developed to strategically align with the organization’s mission of delivering high-standard, patient-focused care. Through investments in staff development, advanced technologies, and essential services, SAMC ensures both operational efficiency and superior patient outcomes. The focus on optimizing current resources and addressing staff turnover issues supports long-term sustainability and excellence in healthcare delivery. This budget not only meets the immediate needs of SAMC but also positions the organization for future success in providing exceptional healthcare services.

References

Berry, L. L., Letchuman, S., Ramani, N., & Barach, P. (2021). The high stakes of outsourcing in health care. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 96(11), 2879–2890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.07.003

Bhati, D. (2023). Improving patient outcomes through effective hospital administration: A comprehensive review. Cureus, 15(10), e47731. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.47731

Bravo, F., Braun, M., Farias, V., Levi, R., Lynch, C., Tumolo, J., & Whyte, R. (2021). Optimization-driven framework to understand health care network costs and resource allocation. Health Care Management Science, 24(3), 640–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-021-09565-1

Cabán, T. Z., Okubo, T. H., & Posnack, S. (2022). Priorities to accelerate workflow automation in health care. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 30(1), 195-201. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocac197

NURS FPX 6216 Assessment 3 Budget Negotiations and Communication

De Rosis, S., Ferrè, F., & Pennucci, F. (2022). Including patient‐reported measures in performance evaluation systems: Patient contribution in assessing and improving the healthcare systems. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 37(S1), 144–165. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3596

Gal, H. C. B., Forma, I. A., & Singer, G. (2022). A flexible employee recruitment and compensation model: A bi-level optimization approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 165, 107916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2021.107916

Geiger, I., Schang, L., & Sundmacher, L. (2023). Assessing needs-based supply of physicians: a criteria-led methodological review of international studies in high-resource settings. BMC Health Services Research, 23(1), 564. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09461-0

Homauni, A., Moghaddam, N. M., Mosadeghkhah, A., Noori, M., & Abbasiyan, K. (2023). Budgeting in healthcare systems and organizations: A systematic review. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 52(9), 1889–1901. https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v52i9.13571

Koruca, H. İ., Emek, M. S., & Gulmez, E. (2023). Development of a new personalized staff-scheduling method with a work-life balance perspective: Case of a hospital. Annals of Operations Research, 328, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-023-05244-2

NURS FPX 6216 Assessment 3 Budget Negotiations and Communication

Paul, M., Maglaras, L., Ferrag, M. A., & Almomani, I. (2023). Digitization of healthcare sector: a study on privacy and security concerns. ICT Express, 9(4), 571–588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icte.2023.02.007

Sánchez, J.-L. R., Torres, T. G., Navarro, A. M., & Losada, R. G. (2020). Investing time and resources for work–life balance: The effect on talent retention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 1920. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061920

Vries, N. de, Lavreysen, O., Boone, A., Bouman, J., Szemik, S., Barański, K., Godderis, L., & Winter, P. de. (2023). Retaining healthcare workers: A systematic review of strategies for sustaining power in the workplace. Healthcare, 11(13), 1887–1887. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11131887

Xuecheng, W., Iqbal, Q., & Saina, B. (2022). Factors affecting employee’s retention: Integration of situational leadership with social exchange theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 872105. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.872105