The Use of Forecasting - Term Paper Example

The Use of Forecasting The Use of Forecasting Introduction It is imperative for nurse leaders to understand all aspects relating tomoney in their departments. To understand these aspects, they ought to collaborate with the finance officers. This paper focuses on how expense forecasting can be used as a valuable tool when facing challenging financial decisions. According to the Laureate Education Inc (2012), expense forecasting is a tool that predicts what an organization will have spent over a specific period of time.

In our case scenario, the budget allocation for the computers is $240,000. After a better deal was given by the technology company for better performing computers was given, the new expense costs were estimated at $300,000. There are a number of options that can be used to respond to this situation. Since it is clear the organization will overspend when buying the new computers, then actions plans ought to be implemented to cut down on other costs. Description of the options One of the options that can be used in this situation relates to staff forecasting (Baker and Baker, 2014).

The organization can cut down on the number of staff in order to cut down on costs that would otherwise be spent in purchasing the computers. Since planning for the computers is ongoing, them planning should also be going on to cut down on the staff. This option has its own ramifications. Reduced number of staff will definitely elevate stress levels and burn out and this translates to poor services. Poor services means that patients will also be dissatisfied. Dissatisfied patients in many cases will opt to seek care in other facilities hence leading to decreased revenue for the facility.

Expense forecasting as cited by the media can be used to identify the availability of resources (Laureate Education Inc, 2012).Identifying available resources within the organization can help spot resource that can be pulled and be used for other purposes. The second option that can be used in this case scenario therefore is to pull resources meant for other purposes within the institution to cover for deficit outlined in the new expense report. This can also have negative effects on the quality of services and patient satisfaction.

The pulled funds may have been intended for quality improvement and hence pulling them will mean that they initially intended purpose will not be achieved. The third option would be to push the extra expenses to the next budget such that the department operates on a deficit the coming year. This might also affect the delivery of services due to insufficient funds but the effects can be mitigated with proper planning. Ranking the options The first option in order of practicability would be pushing the expenses used in covering for the deficit to the next years budget.

This is the most practicable in my opinion as there will be enough time to forecast and conduct proper planning to include the preceding expense hence minimal effects in terms of patient satisfaction, clinical, and financial. In order of practicality, the second option would be pulling resources from other departments as this would not require any budgetary adjustments and will not lead to variations from the total budget. Cutting down on staff to minimize costs and subsequently raise funds to cover for the deficit is the least practical.

The effects of cutting down on staff outweighs the advantages. Reducing the number of staff or employees as mentioned earlier will increase nurse burn out and stress levels. These will in the long run decrease nurse retention. In a nutshell, the deficit in the budget could be addressed through cutting down on the number of employees, pulling funds from other departments, and pushing the expense in the next years budget. ReferencesBaker, J., & Baker, R. W. (2014). Health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Expense forecasting. Baltimore, MD: Author.