|
|
Development Rationale Elements |
Lexicon Resources FAQ Miscellaneous |
|
| How to Establish a Palliative Care Program | ||||
 |
||||
Financial PlanThe Financial plan is usually the final component of a strategic plan. Ask for assistance from someone who has experience in this from your hospital. Understand the principles for financing a palliative care program. Begin by outlining your various assumptions through the planning process --- the target market, program growth, sources of revenue, operational expense increases, etc. Try to estimate what will happen over the next 3-5 year period. Next, complete a 3-5 year proposed program budget. Start with the information you have. Learn about any organization-wide restrictions and/or expectations for new programs. For example, if your hospital expects a minimum return on investment (ROI) of 5% that means that revenue needs to exceed costs by 5%. Alternatively, the institution may budget on the basis of direct and indirect costs. Find out how indirect costs would be calculated for your program. Determine how the "success" of other programs in the hospital is judged. In some institutions, only some programs are required to produce enhanced revenue to the institution while the goal for most programs is to meet their direct expenses. Be sure to outline all funding sources and projected revenues for both hospital and physician fee income by funding source (Medicare, Medicaid, commercial, philanthropy, and grants). In general, palliative care programs combine revenue streams from multiple sources. For example, the program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital gets revenue from physician fee-for-service billing, acute inpatient revenue, and from hospice revenue. The program at Beth Israel Medical Center has these sources plus the procedure-based revenue from an acute and chronic pain service. Programs with restricted sources of clinical revenue often rely on philanthropy and/or grants for startup to offset costs for the program. If this will be the case, work with those individuals in the institution who are responsible for fundraising to identify donors or grants. If fund-raising is to be a goal, conduct this activity within the confines of organizational policies and procedures. Done correctly, philanthropy can be used not only to meet the operational needs of your program, but also as a tool to increase overall organizational fundraising by appealing to a new donor population. Done poorly, and the development people will be disgruntled because you are targeting funders they have targeted for another project. Some hospital-based palliative care or supportive care programs have justified their programs by demonstrating "value-added" results such as improved patient satisfaction, cost avoidance or direct savings. Be sure to document (and quantify if possible) any "value-added" benefits from the program that are likely to affect the assessment of the financial plan. These might include:
Conclude the financial plan by preparing contingency plans and related financial scenarios if your assumptions and projections do not hold. Now, consider how you will implement the program. Ref: CAPC Resources:
|
|
Development |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
