Background: Cost analysis in
laboratories represents a necessary phase in their scientific progression.
Aim: To calculate indirect
cost and thus total
cost per sample of various tests at Hematopathology
laboratory (HPL) Settings and
Design: Activity-based costing (ABC)
method is used to calculate per
cost test of the hematopathology
laboratory . Material and
Methods: Information is collected from
registers , purchase orders, annual
maintenance contracts (AMCs), payrolls, account
books ,
hospital bills and
registers along with informal interviews with
hospital staff.
Results: Cost per test decreases as total number of samples increases. Maximum annual expense at the HPL is on
reagents and consumables followed by
manpower .
Cost per test is higher for specialized tests which interpret morphological or flow data and are done by a
pathologist .
Conclusions: Despite several limitations and assumptions, this was an attempt to understand how the
resources are consumed in a large size
government -run
laboratory . The rate structure
needs to be revised for most of the tests, mainly for
complete blood counts (CBC),
bone marrow examination , coagulation tests and
Immunophenotyping . This costing
exercise is
laboratory specific and each
laboratory needs to do its own costing. Such an
exercise may help a
laboratory redesign its costing structure or at least understand the
economics involved in the
laboratory management.