NURS 6211: Expense Forecasting and Benchmarking

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NURS 6211 Week 9: Expense Forecasting and Benchmarking essay assignment

NURS 6211: Finance and Economics in Health Care Delivery | Week 9 essay assignment

Think about your own life and how you make decisions on where to go for your next vacation. First you have to consider the level of funds you can have available for the trip. Will you use savings? Credit cards? Based on that number, you can begin to narrow down possible choices. Once you decide a location, you must plan for your spending priorities. Do you want to stay in a nicer hotel and cut down on your food budget? Is there a certain museum or art gallery you must have on your itinerary? What if you suddenly receive a phone call from a good friend inviting you to come to his wedding? How would this impact what funds you might have available for your future travel plans?

NURS 6211: Expense Forecasting and Benchmarking essay assignment

The ability to make and use financial forecasts also holds true for running a health care organization. Expense forecasting is a technique that allows you to predict where you, as an organization, are going financially—and thus be better prepared to meet challenges and take advantage of opportunities that might arise. Tools are available to develop expense forecasting for short- and long-term financial needs.

This week, you will also examine the value of comparing your organization to other similar organizations. Also known as benchmarking, this allows you to evaluate how well you are performing in key indicators. There are, however, certain risks involved especially if you compare your organization to another that is not actually comparable.

As you focus on benchmarking, you will consider how to select organizations that are comparable to your own and what measures to use for comparison. You will also be introduced to process analysis and you will examine the three main types: process flow analysis, value stream mapping, and brown paper analysis.

This week, you explore the development and use of expense forecasting and benchmarking as a financial decision making tool for health care professionals.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Apply expense forecast to budget recommendations
  • Analyze the impact of expense forecasts on decision making
  • Apply benchmarking to organizations
  • Analyze benefits and risks of benchmarking

In order to be competitive in health care markets, organizations must ensure that the services they provide are consistent in pricing and quality with other comparable organizations. In this Discussion, you will examine how the process of benchmarking, or comparing organizations, is important in financial decision making.

To prepare:

  • Review the information on benchmarking found in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • Search the Walden Library or other reliable resources on the Internet and locate a journal article discussing how a health care organization has used the principle of benchmarking.
  • How could the concept of benchmarking be used in your own organization (or one with which you are familiar), regardless of size?
  • Consider how benchmarking could be useful to you in decision making.
  • Analyze the potential risks of making a faulty comparison.

By Day 3

Post a summary of the article you found (including the APA reference) and explain how it informed your understanding of benchmarking. Discuss how benchmarking could be used for financial decision making in your own organization (or one with which you are familiar). Also analyze the potential risks of making comparisons with an organization that is not a credible match with your own.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days. Comment on a colleague with different options than your own. Describe what you like about their options and if you agree with their rankings. Justify your answers.