Saranya Mararoje. A comparative study on methods employed for unit costs analysis of medical services in a community hospital . Master's Degree(Pharmacy Administration). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2003.
A comparative study on methods employed for unit costs analysis of medical services in a community hospital
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to analyze and compare methods employed for
unit costs analysis of medical services. This study is retrospective and descriptive, and
was conducted at Kaeng-khoi Hospital, Saraburi Province in the fiscal year 2002. The
process started by collecting secondary data from reports of various departments.
Additional needed data were collected by self-report or interviewing. Firstly, unit
costs of medical services were calculated as a base-case. After that, the unit costs
were re-calculated based on various methods. Finally, the variations of the results
were computed by comparison between those from various methods and the base-case.
It was found that depreciation cost of buildings and capital items calculated by
accounting-based approach was 934,646.68 baht or 13.02% less than that of
economic-based approach. When the useful life of capital items had been changed
from 5 to 10 years, the depreciation cost of the hospital decreased by 676,488.44 baht
(17.28%) from base-case. Regarding alternative indirect cost allocation criteria, unit
cost of the medical services changed by a range of – 6.99% to + 4.05%. For Ratio of
Cost to Charge (RCC) and Relative Value Unit (RVU) departmental allocation
method, it was found that the unit costs varied by a range of –74.66% to +501.64%
and –93.73% to +58.70%, respectively. Based on the variation analysis, it was
concluded that economic-based approach was suitable for depreciation costs
calculation. For the useful life of capital items individual appropriate duration should
be studied and standardized. However, simple allocation criteria might be more
efficient than the combined and complicated criteria. Besides, for the departmental
allocation methods, micro-costing method was the most suitable method at the time of
study. However, RCC would be an efficient method after the prices have been
adjusted based on the results of micro-costing method. In addition, RVU method
would be suitable, if all services in the cost center had similar cost driver.
The results from this study would provide beneficial information for setting up
standard methods of unit cost analysis of medical services.