Page 71 - Htain Manual

Figure 3. Illustrative components of unit cost of services delivery in a hospital.

6. With help of data collection tool, identify all resources being used in respective cost
centres. Measurement of volume/number of resources being used should be done

and finally, collect the unit cost of each resource used, so that total expenditure can

be calculated. Data collection should be started from those resources, which make
major proportion of total cost. Data can be collected from various cost centres by

assessing health records (hospital census or IPD records etc.), accessing administrative

databases (e. g. indent forms from various departments, stock registers of equipment

and furniture, bills paid during given financial year etc.), patient interviews, staff

interviews, questionnaires, checklists etc. Any missing data can be substituted by
consultation of expert panel (e. g. average life of equipment can be obtained from

store in charge and OT technician, based on their experience). In Indian context,

estimation of infrastructure costs is challenging because data pertaining cost of
construction and renovation is not available. This is usually done by making some

realistic assumptions or proxies as illustrated below:

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