Unit Cost in Nakornping Hospital Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The descriptive study was designed to determine the unit cost in Nakornping hospital, ChaingMai Province in fiscal year 2009 from the provider's perspective. The hospital operations were classified into four categories: non-revenue producing cost center (NRPCC), revenue-producing cost center(RPCC), patient service (PS) and non patient service (NPS). The total direct cost of each cost center was determined by combining labor cost and material cost. After that, the directed costs of NRPCC and RPCC were allocated to PS and NTS as indirect costs by using the Simultaneous equation method. Then the full cost of each PS was calculated from direct plus indirect costs. Dividing the final full cost of each cost center by its output provides the unit cost. The result show that the total cost of the hospital in the fiscal year 2009 was 1,006,612,951.31 baht, with the proportion of labor cost : material cost = 47.55 : 52.45 Labor cost was 478,679,163.74 baht, mainly are salaries and wages (60.09%), over time compensation (20.9%). Material cost was 527,933,787.57 baht, mainly are drug costs (63.7%) and medical supplies (22.8%). The unit cost of the whole out-patient service was 979.23 per visit, while the unit costs of the out-patient cost center, dental clinic and Emergency room service were 811.69, 658.62 and 2515.75 baht per visit respectively. The unit cost of in-patient service were 10739.25 bath per case, 2743.29 baht per day and 8786.86 baht per relative weight (RW). Hospital should set up an effective information system for collecting an essential database on hospital accounting, resources consumption, workload of hospital service, and other important data. The system should be able to assess the financial situation, hospital costing and hospital performance and unit cost should be available at all stages and should be viewed as an exercise in improving the confidence of estimations. Training for the staff in all agencies involved on cost analysis and cost per unit are necessary. May appoint working groups to carry out the analysis of cost-sharing. And the situation, hospital costing and hospital performance and unit cost should be available at all stages and should be viewed as an exercise in improving the confidence of estimations. Training for the staff in all agencies involved on cost analysis and cost per unit are necessary. May appoint working groups to carry out the analysis of cost-sharing. And the results of the consideration to reduce unnecessary costs in their units.