Applying activity based costing [ABC] method to calculate cost price in hospital and remedy services

Activity Based Costing [ABC] is one of the new methods began appearing as a costing methodology in the 1990's. It calculates cost price by determining the usage of resources. In this study, ABC method was used for calculating cost price of remedial services in hospitals. To apply ABC method, Shahid Faghihi Hospital was selected. First, hospital units were divided into three main departments: administrative, diagnostic, and hospitalized. Second, activity centers were defined by the activity analysis method. Third, costs of administrative activity centers were allocated into diagnostic and operational departments based on the cost driver. Finally, with regard to the usage of cost objectives from services of activity centers, the cost price of medical services was calculated. The cost price from ABC method significantly differs from tariff method. In addition, high amount of indirect costs in the hospital indicates that capacities of resources are not used properly. Cost price of remedial services with tariff method is not properly calculated when compared with ABC method. ABC calculates cost price by applying suitable mechanisms but tariff method is based on the fixed price. In addition, ABC represents useful information about the amount and combination of cost price services

[Pregnancy with IUD in a bicornuate uterus]

Biconuate uterin is a congenital anomaly of the mullerian duct that can be associated with many complications. A 34-year-old woman was admitted because of having labor pain. She was using an IUD contraceptive device that was not successful in her case. Because of Breech malpresentation and a previous cesarean section, she was scheduled for cesarean section. During the surgery, the presence of the IUD device in one horn and fetus in the other horn of the two-horn uterus was observed with. An early diagnosis of these disorders could provide the patient with useful information and prevent many unnecessary complications

Evaluation o androgen and progesterone levels in women with preeclampsia

Preeclampsia along with its complications seems to be one of the major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Despite numerous studies, the pathology of preeclampsia has not yet been fully elucidated. This study, therefore, determines whether maternal serum levels of androgen and progesterone are higher in patients with preeclampsia than in matched control subjects. Serum progesterone, free and total testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone levels were measured in 19 women in their third trimester of pregnancy having preeclampsia, as patient group, and in 17 healthy normotensive pregnant women, as control group, with similar maternal and gestational ages. All women were primigravida with singleton pregnancy. There were no significant differences between the two groups in body mass index, maternal and gestational ages. Progesterone and free testosterone levels were significantly lower [P<0.01] in patients [75.1 +/- 8.6 ng/dl and 2.27 +/- 1.74 pg/dl] than of control group [111.6 +/- 9.71 ng/dl and 3.73 +/- 1.31 pg/dl]. Whereas, the levels of total testosterone [1.02 +/- 0.10 ng/dl vs. 1.37 +/- .019ng/dl] and dehydroepiandrosterone [0.99 +/- 0.13 micro g/dl vs. 0.98 +/- 5.15 micro g/dl] of patients and control groups were not significantly different. Levels of progesterone were pathologically and statistically lower in preeclampsia than of control women with similar age, gestational age and body mass index. It seems that accentuate increase sex hormone binding globulin is the cause of deceased free testosterone in preeclampsia