Fiscal planning in developing psychiatric emergency services

Two actual budgets are highlighted here to emphasize their worth as models for other programs to copy. Their deficiencies are also discussed so that more attention to headings and content might be paid by administrators facing similar budgetting processes. The need for programs to expand considerable more effort initially to plan fiscally for their emergency psychiatry service is emphasized. With a proper needs assessment and statistical forecasting, resource planning and allocation can be estimated more accurately. Even with the wild fluctuations of case load which all emergency psychiatric services experience, trends do become obvious with scrutiny. Ongoing statistical data can further define future budgets more accurately. More attention to the standard expense categories will clarify where the money is expected to go. More care in identifying income generation through better billing procedures, bill itemization, community fund identification, governmental supplement requests can be clearly documented by an income budget. Without it a program looks like an errant stepchild--spending everyone else's hard earned money and not contributing to the fiscal stability of the parent organization.