PPD budgeting: why flat supply budgets fail when census moves
Budget supplies per patient day, not per month. A flat monthly number only works if census never changes, and in nursing homes and assisted living it always does.
The problem with a flat number
Take a building budgeted at $9,000 a month for supplies. At a census of 75 over a 30-day month it can spend the full $9,000 and look on budget, while spending more per resident than planned. At a census of 95 it can look over budget while spending exactly what it should.
The fix: budget = PPD rate × patient days
| 30-day month | Flat budget | PPD budget at $3.50 |
|---|---|---|
| Census 75 | $9,000 | $7,875 |
| Census 95 | $9,000 | $9,975 |
The $3.50 rate is an illustration, not a benchmark. Your rate depends on acuity and on which categories count.
What makes PPD budgets work in practice
- Census has to be current. Weekly is enough for most operators.
- The check has to happen before ordering. A report at month-end tells you what went wrong; a warning on the requisition stops it.
- Every supplier has to count. A PPD program from one distributor only covers that distributor’s products.
In Vendoro, census is entered weekly or uploaded as a file, every requisition shows its effect on the PPD budget before it’s sent, and over-budget orders can require an approver. See how PPD budgeting works.