ABSTRACT
Background: Medical laboratories are an integral and essential component of the healthcare system. Information about costing and resource management is of paramount importance for providing services at a reasonable price and without quality compromise. Awareness of a scientific method of cost accountingActivity Based Costing (ABC), may contribute significantly to enhance the laboratories capacity to manage its resources efficiently. Objective: This study was done to know the awareness of Activity based costing. Materials & Methods: A preformed validated questionnaire was sent to various laboratory professionals affiliated to private and teaching hospital laboratories. 121 responses were recorded, percentages of which were entered in EXCEL sheets, graphically represented and analysed. Results: Majority of our participants were from medium sized laboratories (40%), working in private sectors, using a combination of automated & semi-automated technologies & not being accredited by regulating bodies. Activity based costing was being implemented in only 14 labs, with more than 70% of respondents not having an adequate knowledge about the same. Inadequate training (44.6%), not being involved in costing (46.3%) and assumed practical difficulties in implementing (9.1%) were some of the reasons cited. Conclusion: Healthcare providers from the laboratory had limited awareness on costing methods like ABC. Efforts to implement and create awareness about the same if made can upscale quality, and sustainable service delivery in lab services at reasonable costs especially in developing country like ours.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: There is a growing concern for the cost management of medical institutions. The purpose of this study was to estimate Activity-Based Costing (ABC) for dental implant cost. ABC refers to allocating resources or cost based on the activities of services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A dental institution located in the metropolitan area was selected in this study. The tax accounting data of the institution were utilized to confirm total cost, and the institution was asked to make out clinical activities to figure out what activities were carried out. The direct cost and indirect cost for dental implant were separately estimated, and cost driver was analyzed to estimate the indirect cost accurately. RESULTS: The rates of the direct and indirect cost respectively stood at 35.8 and 49.5 percent. The cost for a dental implant was found to be approximately 1,579 won, and the cost of prosthetic surgery and treatment that included implant surgery accounted for the largest portion of the cost, which was 470 thousand won (30%). And the weight of training and education on dentistry was relatively higher than that of the other kinds of treatment. CONCLUSION: In order to ensure accurate and scientific costing for dental implant, not only direct medical procedure but every pre- and post-procedure activity should fully be taken into account. Pre-activities, post-activities, education and training are included in the indirect cost, but all these activities are mandatory and associated with the quality of treatment and the satisfaction level of patients.