For this assessment, you will develop a 2-4 page review on the importance of the budgeting process to a health care organization, as well as demonstrate an understanding regarding the differences between an operational budget and a capital budget
Developing an Operating Budget Instructions Assessment 1-1
- For this assessment, you will develop a 2-4 page review on the importance of the budgeting process to a health care organization, as well as demonstrate an understanding regarding the differences between an operational budget and a capital budget. Additionally, you will prepare an operational budget for the surgical department at the St. Anthony Medical Center.
Introduction
Note: This assessment uses Vila Health: Developing an Operating Budget as the context for developing your budget. Please make sure you have reviewed this media piece before you complete your assessment submission.
Financial management is something that touches us all. We are each responsible for our own personal and family budgets, and many of us are also responsible for budgets at work. Regardless of your experience with financial management, it is a critical skill to have, and it will be necessary to master this skill as you move forward in your health care administration career. Almost all health care administrators will be responsible for a budget at some point in their careers. Administrators must also know how to read basic financial statements and reports to assess the performance of their organization, other organizations, or their department.
Budgeting is an important consideration in strategic planning for any health care organization. The most basic definition of budget is a plan that identifies expected financial inputs and outputs. A budget should be closely aligned with a strategic plan, which is a strategy used by an organization to achieve its mission. Organizations may use different types of budgets, such as master budgets, operating budgets, revenue budgets, expense budgets, cash budgets, and capital budgets (Finkler, Smith, & Calabrese, 2020). We will explore each at a high level.
For this assessment, you will be asked to consider the different types of budgets that are used in the health care field. By researching other organizations that use budgets, you will apply the course materials to a real-world situation. The assessment will further refine those skills as you navigate the St. Anthony Medical Center surgical department budget (from the Vila Health media piece). You will prepare a paper and a basic budget to demonstrate the knowledge that you acquired this week.
Many learners enter the field with limited exposure to finances. Depending on your current knowledge and comfort level with the subject, it may be necessary to conduct additional research and spend extra time addressing some of the basics. In other words, the resources in this course will help to provide a foundation for you to complete the assessments, but it is possible that you will need to do your own research in the Capella University Library to fully address all scoring guide criteria.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Competency 1: Explain the importance of reporting in health care.
- Explain why budgets are an important part of the planning process.
- Explain the difference between operating and capital budgets.
- Competency 2: Develop a departmental budget.
- Provide correct revenue and expenses through the current month of the current year.
- Estimate the correct revenue and expenses for the rest of the current fiscal year.
- Prepare a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.
- Competency 3: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and consistent with the expectations for health care professionals.
- Communicate in a clear and logical manner and without grammatical errors, following APA standards.
Reference
Finkler, S. A., Smith, D. L., & Calabrese, T. D. (2020). Financial management for public, health, and not-for-profit organizations (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press.
Instructions
The assessment has two distinct parts:
Part 1: Importance and Types of Budgets
Relevant scoring guide criteria:
- Explain why budgets are an important part of the planning process.
- Explain the difference between operating and capital budgets.
- Communicate in a clear and logical manner and without grammatical errors, following APA standards.
The first part of the assessment will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the importance of budgets within the context of financial and strategic planning for health care organizations, as well as the difference between operating and capital budgets. Use the readings from your Financial Management for Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit Organizations as well as the independent research you conducted to fully develop a 2–4 page response to the relevant scoring guide criteria for this part.
Demonstrating a correct understanding of the differences between an operational budget and a capital budget will be critical to your ability to prepare the correct type of budget for Part 2.
Part 2: Vila Health Operating Budget
Relevant scoring guide criteria:
- Provide correct revenue and expenses through the current month of the current year.
- Estimate the correct revenue and expenses for the rest of the current fiscal year.
- Note: Assume a 5 percent increase in revenue for the purposes of this course.
- Prepare a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.
- Communicate in a clear and logical manner and without grammatical errors, following APA standards.
For Part 2 of this assessment, you will use the information presented in Vila Health: Developing an Operating Budget as context to create your operating budget. Using the data provided for the July-December financial year, you will be developing an operating budget of the surgical department at the St. Anthony Medical Center for the next fiscal year, as well as estimating the revenue and expenses for the remainder of the current fiscal year.
You may download and use the Excel spreadsheet from the media piece as your template for this part.
Additional Submission Requirements
Your assessment should meet the following requirements:
- Structure:Include a title page and reference page. You will submit two documents for your assessment:
- Word document (Part 1: Importance and Types of Budgets).
- Excel spreadsheet (Part 2: Vila Health Operating Budget).
- Length: Part 1 should be 2–4 double-spaced pages in length. There is no length requirement for Part 2.
- References: Cite at least four current scholarly or professional resources.
- Your textbook can be one of the four.
- Format: Use current APA style for references and citations.
- APA formatting: You may wish to refer to the following APA resources to help with your structure, formatting, and style:
- Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point, for narrative portions only.
