The analysis of unit cost in-patient services at the urology department in Thai Nguyen General Hospital in Vietnam

Abstract

This research is a descriptive study aimed at analyzing the cost structure and unit cost of in-inpatient services at urology department of Thai Nguyen General Hospital in 2011. This study was carried out from 21/03/2012 to 2/4/2012. This study is based on the provider perspective. All departments at Thai Nguyen general hospital were classified into three groups which include non–revenue producing cost centers, revenue producing cost centers and patient service centers. The total direct cost of Thai Nguyen general hospital is estimated by considering labor cost, material cost and capital cost, where capital cost includes the cost of building and the cost of equipment. The step-down method is used to allocate cost among cost centers. The allocation is based on allocation criteria which were created specifically for each cost centers. The full cost of the urology department was US$ 20,455 in 2011 the number of in-patients in this department was 503 and the number of inpatient days was 6,016. The unit cost of inpatient services at urology department was US$ 3.4. This unit cost was 7.23 times higher than partial user-fee for one inpatient service. To reduce the gap between unit cost of inpatient services at urology department and the partial user-fee for one inpatient service, the hospital should focus on using the high quality, high technology and long useful life equipment to reduce capital cost. Government should allocate resources to hospital based on quality of hospital instead using number of hospital beds.