Applying Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing in the ICU Ward of Shariati Hospital of Isfahan Province

Abstract

Introduction: Since determining the revenues of services is based on tarrif, the factor of costs and their method of allocation are the only accessible variable to the hospital managers. In this study, with respect to the limitations of the Activity-Based Costing System, the method of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing has been used in the hospital. Methods: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing method was conducted in order to calculate the cost of inpatient bed at night in the ICU ward of Shariati Hospital in 2011 as a case study. The data were collected in order to investigate the accounting documents; interview and direct observation were used to determine the rational basis of sharing costs. Results: The results of the research stated that there is a significant difference between the cost of inpatient bed at night based on the government tariff rate and the cost of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; also, applying the government tariff rate causes the cost of inpatient bed at night to illustrate a lesser reality. Moreover, this indicates the presence of an unused capacity in this sector. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, hospitals and medical centers across the country can reach the correct and more real costs by using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing so that besides avoiding the resulted losses driven from incorrect costing led to an unused capacity,

Keywords

• costing
• time-driven activity-based costing
• rate cost of capacity
• efficiency