Unit Cost of Thasongyang Hospital, Tak Province

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate unit cost of Thasongyang Hospital, Tak province from provider perspective. Retrospective study was conducted in fiscal year 2018 and cost was obtained during 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018. The hospital cost and service cost were analyzed using standard top-down method and cost-per-patient was analyzed using bottom-up method. Cost centers were di­vided by department types into two main groups: absorbing cost center and transient cost center. Costs were distributed from transient cost centers to absorbing cost centers using simultaneous equation method. The allocation criteria used data from absorbing cost centers together with information from hospital database, and data were processed by (Hospital Service Cost Estimate: HSCE) computer program.

The study found that in fiscal year 2018, total service cost of Thasongyang Hospital was 159,909,496 baht. The proportion of labor cost, material cost and capital cost was 56.7:32.4:10.9 respectively. An average outpatient cost per visit was 615 baht. An average outpatient cost per visit of each scheme in­cluding the civil servant medical benefit scheme, social security scheme, universal coverage scheme, stateless people, non-Thai resident with health insurance, non-Thai resident, road accident victims and other was 747, 613, 599, 629, 617, 581, 1,175 and 459 baht, respectively. An average inpatient cost per adjusted relative weight was 13,945 baht. An average inpatient cost per adjusted relative weight of each scheme including the civil servant medical benefit scheme, social security scheme, universal coverage scheme, stateless people, non-Thai resident with health insurance, non-Thai resident, road accident victims and other was 15,330, 12,888, 13,792, 13,263, 14,429, 14,488, 10,840 and 22,967 baht, respective­ly. Service cost of Thasongyang Hospital was higher than the service charge and labor cost was the highest cost. Hospital administrators, therefore, should apply the results from this study for better man­agement. Further studies should examine cost recovery in each scheme.