Finding your voice at the budgeting table

By: Julie McCoy August 22nd, 2008

I just completed an article for the September issue of RPA covering different strategies GME and program leadership can employ when approaching hospital administration for funding. I interviewed a designated institutional official (DIO), who used to be a program director. She brought up a great point about program directors’ responsibility for budgeting that I think is really interesting.

She says that although program directors are largely held accountable for their program’s budgets, they typically do not sit in on departmental or hospital budget meetings. If a program director has a close working relationship with the department’s finance person or if he or she also serves as the chair of the department, then this really isn’t a problem. But, many program directors are not in that position.

Bottom line: In many institutions, program directors are responsible for budgets, but they do not have a voice at hospital/departmental budgeting meetings.

Departments get a lot out of residents, so it’s not unreasonable to request a seat at the table so that the program’s needs can be addressed.

The DIO I spoke with also says program directors need to become more aware of what their programs are spending. Figure out how much your program spends annually and what you’re spending it on. Because it is the start of the academic year, it’s a great time to start keeping a list of expenditures. This way, if you do have to go to the budgeting committee to request more funding, you have some cold hard data to rely on.

Does anyone have some unique ideas for finding funding for GME programs? Please share them!

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Comments

By Karen Sharrock on August 27th, 2008 at 5:28 am

Throughout the year, as expenses come up, I keep reviewing our budget and making a list of all the items not on it, so that they can be included next year. Saves time in March trying to recall everything that was missed.