Table 5 Accounting technical differences

Cost drivers

Gross margins, square meters, number of purchases etc., or negotiated rates

Nursing time, physician time, operating theater time, in-patient days, clinical care units (representing time based measures of the acuity of treatment offered to different types of patients)

Activity cost pools

Support departments, clinical departments

Performed activities: consultation, filling documents, registering patient data, hospitalization, hotel services, care (nursing care given)

Cost data

Aggregated cost data

Detailed cost data on function level (e.g. salary on professional level)

Calculations

Wide national averages:

Sum of total costs within a function (including overhead) divided with more detailed activity according to points

Resource cost (C) = Ʃ cost / number of activities

Detailed local resource calculations:

Simple formula:

Resource cost (C) = Quantity of resource units (Q) x Price per unit of resource (P)

More specifically becomes:

Actual Costs for patient “i” in episode period “j”:

Cij = c1j*X1ij + c2j*X2ij + c3j*X3ij + … + cNj*XNij

Where:

• Xnij = the number of units of resource n consumed by patient i in episode period j.

• Cni = the unit cost of resource n episode period j.