Costs of primary health centers and health centers in Kurdistan Province in 2014

Costs can influence the quality of health services. Estimation of the costs of the health care services is an important issue that has always preoccupied the minds of the managers of the health system. This study aimed to assess the costs of rural health centers and primary health centers in Kurdistan Province in 2014.
Material and This cross-sectional study included 30 rural health centers and 182 primary health centers of kurdisatn University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Costs were determined on the basis of activity-based costing. Costs were divided into direct and indirect categories. Direct costs were related to personnel, consumable and non-consumable materials, energy , repairs , car and rural family physician. Indirect costs, included costs imposed by the city health centers, deputy of health , deputy of logistics and finance, and university chancellor's office.
Direct costs of the health centers in 2014 amounted to 971,722,394 Rials. The highest proportion of the costs belonged to rural family physician (76.2%) and the lowest was related to the health workers (18.6%) . The costs of each rural health center ran to 1,515,851,000 Rials . Direct costs of a rural center including its primary health centers amounted to 7,628,981,000 Rials. Indirect costs, including costs imposed by the city health centers, deputy of health , deputy of logistics and finance, and university chancellor's office were 479,345,000 Rials.
Considering the average costs of rural health centers, the annual budget allocated to the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, is low, and can affect the quality of basic health services for rural areas.