Disaster Preparedness Budget Model

The Disaster Preparedness Budget Model is an Excel-based tool designed to assist healthcare executives in preparing their finances to withstand a large-scale public health emergency.

How it works

The model helps executives:

• Estimate the resources needed by healthcare departments (e.g., administration, emergency room, facilities, information and technology) during a disaster.
• Calculate the amount of cash reserves that may be needed for maintaining operations while awaiting reimbursement from insurance companies or government agencies.

How it was created

The Disaster Preparedness Budget Model was created by Ed Tucker, CPA, CMC, based on his experiences as a hospital chief financial officer during Hurricane Katrina. His model was originally published in Anticipate, respond, recover: Healthcare leadership and catastrophic events.

Mr. Tucker presented the budget model at the CDC Healthcare Preparedness Activity’s Healthcare Executives and Disasters Stakeholder Meeting on November 5, 2013. After the presentation, Mr. Tucker met with a workgroup of executives who led their organizations through disasters. Together they reviewed the model and identified improvements. A revised version of the model, based on this review process, is now being made publicly available.

How to get started

Open the Microsoft Excel file to begin. The second sheet in the workbook contains instructions on how to use the various pages. It provides instructions on how to begin entering information to tailor the model for a specific healthcare facility.