Suthummanon Sakesun, Omachonu Vincent K, Akcin Mehmet
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.
Health Serv Manage Res. 2005 Aug;18(3):141-50. doi: 10.1258/0951484054572538.
Previous studies have shown the feasibility of using activity-based costing (ABC) in hospital environments. However, many of these studies discuss the general applications of ABC in health-care organizations. This research explores the potential application of ABC to the nuclear medicine unit (NMU) at a teaching hospital. The finding indicates that the current cost averages 236.11 US dollars for all procedures, which is quite different from the costs computed by using ABC. The difference is most significant with positron emission tomography scan, 463 US dollars (an increase of 96%), as well as bone scan and thyroid scan, 114 US dollars (a decrease of 52%). The result of ABC analysis demonstrates that the operational time (machine time and direct labour time) and the cost of drugs have the most influence on cost per procedure. Clearly, to reduce the cost per procedure for the NMU, the reduction in operational time and cost of drugs should be analysed. The result also indicates that ABC can be used to improve resource allocation and management. It can be an important aid in making management decisions, particularly for improving pricing practices by making costing more accurate. It also facilitates the identification of underutilized resources and related costs, leading to cost reduction. The ABC system will also help hospitals control costs, improve the quality and efficiency of the care they provide, and manage their resources better.
以往的研究表明了在医院环境中使用作业成本法（ABC）的可行性。然而，这些研究大多讨论了ABC在医疗保健组织中的一般应用。本研究探讨了ABC在一家教学医院核医学科（NMU）的潜在应用。研究结果表明，目前所有检查项目的平均成本为236.11美元，这与使用ABC计算出的成本有很大差异。差异在正电子发射断层扫描中最为显著，为463美元（增长了96%），在骨扫描和甲状腺扫描中也较为显著，为114美元（下降了52%）。ABC分析结果表明，操作时间（机器时间和直接人工时间）和药品成本对每个检查项目的成本影响最大。显然，为了降低NMU每个检查项目的成本，应分析操作时间和药品成本的降低情况。结果还表明，ABC可用于改善资源分配和管理。它可以成为管理决策的重要辅助工具，特别是通过使成本计算更加准确来改善定价实践。它还有助于识别未充分利用的资源和相关成本，从而降低成本。ABC系统还将帮助医院控制成本，提高所提供护理的质量和效率，并更好地管理其资源。
