In: Finance
Chapter 7 introduces you to three methods to evaluate large-dollar, multi-year investment decisions: payback, net present value, and internal rate of return. What the strengths and weaknesses of each method in a health care environment? Please provide an example for each presented in the text or another source that you find. What method do you feel is the most effective and why?
Payback period : Payback period is the period the project takes to recover the initial investment. It is a measure of liquidity of a project and a non-discounting technique. It is helpful in analyzing how quick a project can recover its initial investment. This project does not use time value of money and does not consider the cash flows after the payback period date.
Net present value is the difference between present value of subsequent cash flows and the initial investment. This method uses the time value of money concept and calculates net addition in the shareholder’s wealth. Net present value is very complex to calculate and the selection of discount rate is a subjective decision.
Internal rate of return is the discount rate at which the net present value of the project will be zero. IRR method considers the time value of money concept but it assumes that the cash flows will be reinvested at the IRR rate. IRR is also difficult to calculate.