Comparison of the Costs of Services Provided in Urban and Rural Health Care Centers in Shahroud

Cost analysis can lead to optimal utilization of the resources and can improve the performance of the health care system. The present study was carried out to analyze, and compare the costs of the services provided in urban and rural health care centers in Shahroud. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. All urban and rural health care centers in Shahroud were studied in this study in 2009. The required data were collected through more than 70 forms. The data were analyzed through EXCEL and SPSS software programs. Out of the 496 health care personnel, 42.5 % of the personnel were working in urban centers and 57.5 % were working in rural centers. Among all the urban and rural centers, 66.1% of the costs were personnel costs and 33.9% were other costs. The number of services provided in urban canters was 777383 and in rural centers it was 828888. The mean cost of one service provided in urban centers was 27228 rials and in rural centers it was 34354 rials. The mean cost of one case of coverage in urban centers was estimated to be 29601 rials and in rural centers it was 37266 rials. In general, the number of the services and the coverage provided in urban centers was less than the ones provided in rural centers. The most important factor influencing the total cost of the services is the personnel cost, thus staff cutback and optimal use of the work force, using modern technologies and utilizing the capabilities of the private sector in providing health care services in urban centers can lead to better and more efficient productivity of the resources.