Unit Cost of Health Care Services at Srabua Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital, Phayuha Khiri District, Nakornsawan Province during Fiscal Year 2020-2021.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND The study of unit costs per service is a public health economics investigation aimed at evaluating the expenses incurred in delivering services at individual service units.
The findings serve as input for allocating adequate and appropriate budgets to ensure the provision of high-quality services.
OBJECTIVE This study was aimed to examine the unit costs per service at Ban Sra Bua Health Promoting Hospital in Phayuha Khiri District, Nakhon Sawan Province, during the fiscal years 2020–2021.
METHODS A descriptive study design was applied from the perspective of service providers. Secondary retrospective data from fiscal years 2020–2021 were collected using the structured data collection forms. The data was included Labor costs, Material costs, and Capital costs, which were analyzed to calculate the total costs for 14 categories of services of Health Promoting Hospital.
Unit costs were calculated for 8 categories which were the directly services including 1) Treatment, 2) Maternal and Child Health, 3) Family Planning, 4) Immunization, 5) School Health,
6) Non-Communicable Diseases, 7) Thai Traditional Medicine, and 8) Disease Control. Descriptive statistics, including number, minimum, maximum, total, percentage, proportion, ratio, and mean were used for the analysis.
RESULTS In fiscal year 2020, the total direct cost was 1,843,951.84 THB, consisting of Labor costs 1,300,899.84 THB (70.55%), Material costs 492,562.00 THB (26.71%), and Capital costs 50,490.00 THB (2.74%). In fiscal year 2021, the total direct cost was 2,022,420.55 THB, consisting of Labor costs 1,398,899.88 THB (69.17%), Material costs 556,234.00 THB (27.50%), and Capital costs 67,286.67 THB (3.33%). The proportion among Labor: Material: Capital cost were 25.77: 9.76: 1.00 in fiscal year 2020 and 20.79: 8.27: 1.00 in fiscal year 2021. The highest unit cost per service in fiscal year 2020 was found in Disease Control 33,696.55 THB/person, 6,739.31 THB/visit, while the lowest was Thai Traditional Medicine 57.30 THB/person, 36.01 THB/visit. In fiscal year 2021, the highest unit cost per service was found in Maternal and Child health 22,232.16 THB/person, 3,705.36 THB/visit, while the lowest remained in Thai Traditional Medicine 67.46 THB/person, 49.68 THB/visit.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Reducing unit costs and improving service efficiency at Ban Sra Bua Health Promoting Hospital can be achieved through 2 approaches: 1) Reducing Material and Capital costs by focusing expenditures solely on essential items for delivering quality health services. 2) Increasing proactive community-based activities, particularly in health promotion and disease prevention, to enhance the distribution of labor costs toward proactive services.
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