Functional value analysis of a physiotherapy department

In these days of rising health care expenditures and public demand for physiotherapy services, physiotherapy managers are faced with many decisions regarding demands for services which run counter to budgetary limitations. This paper presents a new methodology -- Functional Value Analysis (FVA) -- which the physiotherapy department manager can use as one solution to his problem of continuing the provision of services while under financial constraints. Functional Value Analysis is a process that can be used to analyze and determine the cost of various activities that occur in a physiotherapy department. This process can also be used to generate cost-saving ideas and to priorize them. The Task Force Committee of a Manitoban hospital wanted cost-saving ideas, for 30 per cent of its budget, documented. Therefore, the physiotherapy department, along with other professional service departments at the hospital, undertook such an FVA study in October of 1978. Out of the physiotherapy departments annual budget of $615,960, the department was able to document cost-saving ideas of $267,346. Functional Value Analysis is one tool for a department manager's use which can reduce costs in an organized logical manner.