Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing of Prosthetic Dental Treatment

Abstract

Purpose: Health systems worldwide have sustainability concerns due to rising demand and healthcare services costs. Value-based healthcare (VBHC) may solve all sustainability challenges by improving health outcomes. Improving outcomes is the only effective approach to cutting healthcare expenses. Cost-assessment methodologies that can give high-quality cost information are required to implement value-based initiatives. Time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) method, a cost component of VBHC, has been increasingly adopted to close the cost-information gap.
 Materials & Methods: The study calculates prosthetic dental treatment costs with the time-driven activity-based costing method. Data for this study were collected from the prosthesis department of a dental hospital in 2019. 
 Results: The department's total practical capacity was estimated as 1,365,888 min for dentists and 328,320 minutes for patient consultants. The dentist capacity cost rate was calculated as 1.71 TL/min and for a patient consultant as 0.69 TL/min. Total prosthetic dental treatment costs range between 252.7TL and 304TL, depending on complications, emergencies, consultation or sedation needs.
 Conclusion: Activity-Based Costing provides accurate cost information and improves the process by making costs and activities more transparent. The prosthetic dental treatment process was presented transparently in the study. The costing model was designed to be expanded concerning the patient's urgency, the consultation and sedation needs. The cost of only one procedure was calculated in the study, and it is planned to evaluate all department activities in future research.