Cost unit analysis of blood transfusion centers in Guilan province

Cost analysis of blood transfusion centers and their products is a very important tool for policy makers to manage and plan for future. The aim of this study was to develop a model for estimating costs related to blood transfusion centers and their products. In this descriptive and retrospective study, we have evaluated the following costs during the financial year of March 2009 to 2010: capital costs (values of buildings, vehicles, unusable materials and equipment) and recurrent costs (costs of buildings’ repairs, usable materials, drugs, salaries of employees and other consumables and office expenses). A checklist was used for data collection and analysis was done by SPSS 17. Initially the costs were calculated in Iranian Rials and then converted to USD (1 USD = 9600 Rial) during 2009 -2010. Mean total costs for a fixed blood transfusion center without no blood component preparation was 48059$, for a mobile blood center 336445$, and for a fixed blood transfusion center with both blood collection and blood component preparation ranged from 1599256 to 268361$. It is also calculated to be 1581488$ for a blood transfusion center where blood collection, blood component preparation, and laboratory screening tests are done. Overall, the service charge of the preparation of whole blood unit, packed cell, FFP, and random donor platelet were 72, 62, 77 and 226$, respectively. Since blood components are provided free of charge and there is no insurance coverage over production costs, the management of resources is of prime importance for blood centers.