Absolute Cost of Hernia Operation using Activity Based Costing (ABC)

Activity-based cost evaluation is used as a tool for accurate assessment and calculation of the cost of any operation .The goal of this study was to estimate the absolute cost of an operation on hernia in Shahid Sadughi hospital of Yazd using Activity Based Costing (ABC) method in 2012.
This applied, descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study was conducted in 2012. The required data were collected through interview with hospital officials and personnel of related units, observance of surgical wards’ activities, studying documents and notebooks in these sections, as well as other official and supportive units. In order to estimate the cost share of other sectors in surgical wards’ services, initially the allocation bases were determined. Afterwards, by applying two-way partitioning method (mathematics), costs were estimated. Finally, by using Activity-Based Costing (ABC) approach, and applying the Excell software, the absolute cost of an operation on hernia was calculated.
Studies showed that the absolute cost of an operation on hernia is 307.56 $ (1$ = 12050 Rials). The cost of personnel is 165 $ which is 53.69 %, and the cost of medications and consumed products is 96 $ which is 31.2 % of the total absolute cost of a hernia operation.
Based on the findings, the absolute cost of services can be reduced by improving performance, especially by reforming operations of human resources management and standardizing consumption.