Introduction
After implementing the filing system, the hospital will need to control costs. The costs are controlled through the budgetary process. It will require various resources which will make it successful. The resources required include staff, computers, extra space, and maintenance. The space must be large enough to have an area for consultation, a waiting room, a pharmacy, wards, stores, and an open field for parking and for patients to rest while waiting for some medical attention. Resources always range from machines, drugs, human resources, ground, and finances. Without these resources, the hospital will be successful in delivering the services.
This requires a budget which is a quantitative expression of a plan of action and an aid to coordination and implementation. Budgets can be prepared or formulated for the organization as a whole or any sub-unit. They may include income, expenditure, and the employment of capital. Budgets can be designed to carry out a variety of functions such as planning, evaluating performance, coordinating activities, implementing plans, communicating, motivating, and authorizing actions.
Budgets are very important to the organization as they provide a discipline that brings planning to the forefront as a key management responsibility. In most cases, budgetary systems are more common in larger companies where formalized and sophisticated techniques are developed to serve the management. The major argument of budgeting maintains that the benefits from budgeting nearly always exceed the cost. Therefore budgeting programs are very important and helpful to almost every organization.
Specific strategies to manage budgets within forecasts of the hospital
Management by objectives
Under this strategy, the issue of coordinating the efforts of executives in achieving policy objectives have been highly stressed. A hospital that uses budgeting control faces human resistance. Employees can view budget control as a pressure device calculated to force them to attain impossible goals. As a result of this, managers who have been negatively implicated in the reports may not accept the adverse result. Therefore, there should be efforts to ensure that managers and supervisors appreciate the psychological implications of a budget.
Further, the problem of human resistance can be solved by the participation of all stakeholders in preparing budgets. The actual participation by top management in formulating budgets encourages them to play an active role in achieving corporate goals. The strategy ensures that each manager has responsibility for his objectives formulated with his immediate superior. For successful application of this strategy, it requires a hospital plan within which to operate. Further, a clearly defined hospital structure of management will enable, managers, to play their roles successfully.
In budgetary control, the accountant is required to produce information to help managers formulate objectives and present information to help the manager to assess his own performance.
Management by exception
Under this strategy, the important principle is that when a certain result has been achieved, a signal is given that a certain result is unacceptable promoting corrective action. Therefore once a budget has been formulated and agreed upon, there is no need to give detailed information of actual results to the managers. The manager’s responsibility is to control against a plan and, if the plan is achieved, they are successful.
If there is a variance between the actual and budgeted, there is a need to show where it has happened and why. The manager must focus his attention on problem areas and he does not want to shift through a mass of figures to find this. By reporting variance from the budget, the accountant guides the manager into problem areas, and so is the exception that the manager concentrates on to the exclusion of those items which fall within the budget (Berry, 2005).
Hospital and long-range planning
Sometimes, there is a tendency for budgetary control to operate where there is little or no attempt to specify long-term aims. As a result, budgets are based on an anticipated effect of past decisions and outside influences which have no link to the common objective to be achieved. The Hospital planning seeks to overcome this problem by determining the objectives of the business and developing plans designed to achieve the objectives (Shim & Siegel, 1998).
This strategy is very important as it is used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the hospital in respect of matters of labor relations, ability to obtain capital, the competence of managers among them. The weaknesses must be overcome and strengares be exploited for the hospital to attain its objectives. It’s from this assessment that specific plans will be developed to take the business from present performance. Examples of this planning are include strategic planning, operational and project planning (Shim & Siegel, 1998).
Expense Results With Budget Expectations, and Possible Reasons for Variance for the Hospital
First and foremost the latest technology shall be employed in the filing to promote efficiency and accuracy. Further employees will be assigned duties in their areas of specialization in order to promote efficient service delivery by the hospital.
To retain employees the hospital shall reward employees for good performance, organize social occasions for them, give them honours and introduce medical care plan for their families. Some incentives like overtime, bonuses, good working conditions, insurance covers, staff parties and transport allowances shall be given to employees.
Analysis of the variance
- Salaries and wages- For the accounting period of 12 months, the sales actual cost decreased by $1000 from the budgeted cost. The variance is as the result of many improved filing system that reduced staff members.
- Administration expense- During the 12 month period, the administration expense actual cost increased by $1200 from the budgeted cost. This variance was influenced by factors like; inflation and change in communication styles within the hospital. This expense includes office rent and rates, office lighting heating and cleaning, telephone, and postage and others. Most of the components of this expense are fixed in nature and therefore a smaller degree fluctuation
- Drug cost for immunization -The actual costs of Drug cost for immunization increased by$1000 from the budgeted costs during the accounting period of 12 months. The variances arose because of service improvement and many children were brought to the hospital.
- Child admission cost – the actual cost of admitting patients reduced from the budgeted cost due to the improved filing system. The time consumed while filing and
- Insurance costs-the actual cost of insurance increased by $700 from the budgeted because of many reasons. This includes inflation, increased life expectancy rates and others
Benchmarking Techniques That Improve Budget Accuracy
As an effective aid to accurate forecasting of the hospital finances, it should be approached using some benchmarks. The possible benchmarks may inlude;
Sales staff procedure
In this case, those responsible should have an active role in budget formulation. Previous revenue collections are usually the base for predications. Proper scrutiny is done by hospital management on historical revenue behaviour and relates it to these data such as economic indicators and charging policies as well as out break of diseases. Current information is assembled based on the patents who visited the hospital in the previous year (Horngren, Datar, and Foster, 2003).
Statistical Approaches
Under this approach trend, cycle projection and correlation analysis are useful supplementary techniques. Correlation between revenue, outbreak of disease and economic indicators help make revenue forecasts more reliable, especially if fluctuating in certain economic indicators precede fluctuations in hospital sales. Too much reliance on statistical evidence is dangerous, because chance variations in statistical data may completely upset a program. This approach can provide help but not outright answers (Barsky and Catanach, 2004).
Group Executive Judgement
The top management may use their experience and knowledge to project revenue on the basis of group opinion. This approach brings responsibility to revenue predictions and ignores the need for tough-minded approach to this important task. The approach is fast and includes intricate statistical measures.
References
Berry, L. (2005). Management Accounting Demystified. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Barsky, N & Catanach, A. (2004). Management Accounting: A Business Planning Approach. Boston: South-Western College.
Horngren, C., Datar, S. & Foster, G. (2003). Cost accounting: a managerial emphasis. New Delhi: Prentice Hall.
Shim, J. & Siegel, J. (1998). Schaum’s Guideline of Managerial Accounting. New York: McGraw-Hill.