Educational Costs of Residents in a Teaching Hospital: a case study

Residents spend much of their time at the hospitals to earn their required educational skills and although they act as a kind of human resource in the hospital, they increase hospital costs. The present study was designed to calculate the share of educational costs of different medical residents in hospitals.

In this descriptive and applied study performed in one of the hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, the hospital cost items of education of residents in different medical fields during the academic year of 2017-2018 were identified by use of two scenarios.

In short, mean educational cost of one resident in the studied academic year was about 5357$ based on the first scenario and about 5404 $ according to the second scenario. Based on both scenarios, salaries paid to residents accounted for more than 50% of the costs followed by the cost of consumed materials by residents. Forensic Medicine and Anesthesiology residency programs had respectively the lowest and highest share of costs in both scenarios.

The cost of training in the hospital is different among residency fields based on the required tests and errors in each field. But, in order to save hospital costs, the culture of optimal use of materials as well as medical equipment should be taught to residents.