Planning 2027: how virtual reality gets into an institution's budget

There is a point in the year when next year's decisions are, in practice, already made. In Portuguese social solidarity institutions (IPSS) organised as associations, the IPSS Statute requires the general assembly to meet by 30 November to review and vote on the following year's action programme and budget, with the opinion of the supervisory board. Misericórdias, foundations and hospitals keep their own calendars, but the season is similar: October and November are the months when what will exist in 2027 gets written down.

What does not go into the plan rarely gets in halfway through the year. Not out of ill will, but because the budget has already been allocated and any new expense has to take money from something else. This article is for whoever, inside an institution, wants to bring virtual reality into that conversation — and wants to bring it well prepared.

Who decides, and who needs to be in the room

The person who wants virtual reality is rarely the one who decides. It is worth mapping the route before writing the proposal.

• In an IPSS or care home: the proposal almost always starts with the technical director, the activities team, occupational therapy or nursing. The board decides (or the mesa administrativa, in a Misericórdia), and the budget then goes to a vote in the general assembly. The supervisory board gives its opinion.
• In a hospital or local health unit: the request starts in the service, goes through the head of service and, depending on the institution, the clinical and nursing directors, the board of directors, procurement and IT. We wrote about that chain in who authorises it inside the hospital.

A useful rule: whoever will run the sessions should help write the proposal. A board accepts a project more readily when it already has an owner.

Which budget line: equipment or service

It is the first question from accounts, and the answer changes how the project is read.

• If it is an equipment purchase, it is capital spending: it comes in once, sits on the asset register, depreciates, and in a few years someone will have to replace, repair or update it. Content and support tend to be a separate line.
• If it is a service, it is operating spending: a line that repeats every year, at a predictable amount, covering whatever the contract says — equipment, content, updates, replacements.

RVer is the second: the equipment is ours and the institution contracts an annual service. We explained why in the equipment is ours. For the budget, the consequence is simple: there is no asset to manage, but there is a line that has to appear every year. Check the exact budget line with your accounts team; in many institutions it sits with activities, in others with clinical services.

What to take to the board: one page

A board does not need a study. It needs one page that answers four questions, and to know what happens if it does not work.

1. What for. A concrete aim, written in the language of care: “a calm moment for bedbound residents who hardly leave their room”, “a reminiscence activity for the afternoon group”. Avoid aims that promise clinical results — they cannot be met or measured that way.
2. For whom. Which residents or patients, how many, by what criteria. A proposal that says “everyone” is harder to defend than one that starts with a group.
3. Who runs it, and with what time. Names or roles, and the hours per week it takes. It is the question that most often fails, and the one that decides most. See who can run a session.
4. How it is reviewed. What is recorded in each session, who looks at the records and when the decision is revisited. Three or six months is a reasonable window for a first reading.

And a fifth line, which builds confidence: what happens if it does not work — how it ends, what remains, what was learnt. In a hospital service, this usually takes the form of a pilot with an end date.

Private and public procurement, in general terms

How you buy depends on who is buying and where the money comes from.

• Private procurement. Many IPSS contract like any private organisation: they ask for proposals, compare, and the board decides and signs. It is quicker, but it is worth keeping a record of the decision and of the proposals received.
• Public procurement. Hospitals and other public bodies buy under the Portuguese Public Contracts Code. The most common procedures — direct award, prior consultation, public tender — depend on the value and type of contract, and all of them take time: tender documents, budget commitment, response deadlines. If the decision is for 2027, the procedure has to be in the plan.
• Third-party money. When a purchase is paid for by a funding programme or a public body, the programme itself may impose procurement rules, even on a private institution. Read the regulations before asking for proposals.

For whoever will write the specifications, we left a guide in tender specifications. For funding sources, see funding and reimbursement. And for the underlying problem — the service that pays is not always the one that saves — see who pays is not who saves.

Where RVer fits, and where it does not

RVer goes into the budget as an annual service line, with equipment, video library and support included. We can send a written proposal for the institution, with what the board needs in order to decide, and help fill in the technical part of a tender specification.

What we do not do for you: set the aim, choose the residents or patients, and secure the team's time. Those three things belong to the institution, and they are what decide whether the project works.

In summary

• October and November are the months of the plan and the budget; in IPSS associations, the assembly votes by 30 November.
• Before writing, know who decides and who needs to be heard.
• Equipment is capital spending that stays; a service is an annual line that repeats. Check the budget line with accounts.
• One page is enough: what for, for whom, who runs it, how it is reviewed — and what happens if it does not work.
• In public procurement, the procedure has to be in the plan; third-party money can bring its own rules.

This article is for information only and is not legal, accounting or procurement advice. Check deadlines and procedures against your institution's statutes and with whoever handles purchasing and accounts.

RVer is a virtual reality system for clinical use designed for healthcare settings, whose base product is registered as a Class I Medical Device in EUDAMED (Basic UDI-DI 56006195127RVERTZ) and with INFARMED (Portugal, CDM 94571546) and bears the CE mark under MDR 2017/745. The RVer Motion, RVer Neuro and RVer Exposure modules are in development and are not covered by that registration.