Achieving fiscal fitness: budgeting basics for patient education managers

Patient education managers must be adept at developing and employing mechanisms for management planning and control; the operating budget is among the most powerful of such management tools. As a component of operational planning, the budget must be based upon clearly formulated program goals and objectives. Focusing on characteristics relevant to budgeting, the organization of one patient education department is described in this article. The budget categories employed by that department are presented as one possible budget framework. A simplified example of estimating costs for a new patient education activity is then illustrated. Emphasizing the imperative of linking funding appeals to administrative priorities, basic guidance concerning justification of funding requests is offered. The use of budget reports to analyze variance between actual and budgeted expenditures is subsequently examined. Finally, the article underscores the fact that continual effort to cultivate administrative support is a requisite for securing increased funding for patient education programs.