Business Processes in the Function of Cost Management in Healthcare Institutions

Abstract

This paper is dealing with the importance of business processes regarding costs tracking and cost management in healthcare institutions. Various changes within the health care system and funding of hospitals require the introduction of management information systems and cost accounting. The introduction of cost accounting in public hospitals would allow the planning and control of costs, monitoring of costs per patient or service and the calculation of indicators for the analysis and assessment of the economic performance of the business of public hospitals and lead to the transparency of budget spending. A model that would be suited to the introduction in the public hospital is full cost allocation model based on activities or processes that occur, known as the ABC method. Given that this is a calculation of cost of services provided through various internal business processes, it is important to identify all business processes in order to be able to calculate the costs incurred by services. Although the hospital does not do business with the aim to make a profit, they must follow all the costs (direct and indirect) to be able to calculate the full costs i.e. the price of the service provided. In addition, the long-term sustainability of business activities in terms of funding difficulties and the continuous growth of cost of services provided, hospitals must control and reduce the cost of the program and specific activities. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to point out the importance of business processes while introducing ABC method.