In Partnership with our Community

Budget – noun – An estimate, often itemized, of expected income and expense for a given period in the future.

Many of our partners are set to begin a new fiscal year while others, like Bonfils Blood Center, are just a few short weeks away from beginning the 2009 budgeting process. Many details go into building a budget. For Bonfils we first must evaluate our balanced scorecard which outlines specific goals we have determined to be important in meeting our strategic objective of being a premier, community-focused blood center.

Resources, both human and financial, must be allocated to achieve this objective. With financial resources as scarce as they are, we cannot afford to misapply or misallocate funds to activities that do not promise advancement of our strategic objective. These financial resources represent the value our clients have in the products and services we provide. The efficiency and effectiveness we achieve in our operations allow us the opportunity to plan and meet clients' needs in the future.

Within the budget are contingencies that allow us to be prepared for emergencies or large and unanticipated expenses that might otherwise negatively affect our ability to meet our community responsibilities to provide blood and blood products to the healthcare providers, and ultimately to patients, that depend upon us. We also pay close attention to areas where we see significant changes in expenses year to year. This alerts us to changing conditions that may effect long-term decisions. Budgets are also important in that they provide guidelines for banking covenants and aid cash flow decisions in the short- and long-term. As we look at resources allocated, we are continuously looking at the “safety net” to be sure we are not shortsighted.  

Bonfils owns the property which houses the headquarters, laboratories and the centralized-warehouse and other common use assets. We lease properties that are home to our nine community donor centers. We have more than 450 employees who represent our greatest asset and receive the greatest attention during our budgeting process. To remain competitive in the market place, we also consider the Consumer Price Index, Medical Price Inflation, Producer Price Index, medical care and general/surgical hospital and Mountain States Employers Council data along with economic information complied by the state of Colorado and the offices that generate economic data. We work closely with our professional associations, our group purchasing organization and others that can influence our costs going forward to properly balance our budget and provide for the small but important margin that will allow us to grow, access the best and most efficient equipment and maintain the infrastructure of our organization.  

We are keeping a very close eye on the costs and the state of donor screening and looking into the future of cellular therapy and transfusion medicine to assure that we are appropriate in our spending. As a community asset we are cognizant of our responsibility to provide first-class services and be efficient and effective with the resources we are provided.

Thomas C. Puckett

President & CEO

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