A Unit Cost Analysis for Thai Traditional Medicine Services and Activities of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Keywords:
Thai Traditional Medicine, TTM, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Unit Cost AnalysisAbstract
This research study aimed to apply the concept of unit cost for calculating the health promotion and disease prevention services of Thai Traditional Medicine (TTM). The unit cost analysis was performed using Activity Based Costing (ABC). Data for TTM was collected from four provinces of Thailand. Purposive sampling technique was used for TTM-related data collection in Sakolnakon, Suratthani, Pitsanulok, and Chantaburi. TTM data on services, costs, and revenue for fiscal years 2017 were collected from one community hospital and two sub-district hospitals in each province. Unit costs for TTM are presented from the provider perspective. Labor, material, and capital costs were collected to estimate TTM activity cost for 5 age groups. The number of hospitals providing TTM health promotion and disease prevention services are far less than those simply providing common treatment. TTM services are mostly found in antenatal and postpartum care. Those services are: Thai massage, herbal steam and compress, providing education and prescribing other herbal remedies. In terms of costs, it was found that the median direct cost was 198,942.42 Thai Baht (THB), and the median indirect cost was 55,283.15 THB, accounting for 81.64% and 18.36%, respectively. The median total cost was 254,225.56 THB. When dividing all costs into three categories, the study showed the labor costs accounted for the majority of total cost (29.63% to 88.84%). Moreover, the unit cost for TTM activities varied moderately between hospitals. Unit cost on making herbal compresses presented the highest costs at 361.30 Baht; whereas, the cost of TTM advice for age 0 – 5 year olds presented the lowest cost at 2.76 Bath.
The result of TTM activities cost provided useful information for resource allocation and management which will improve efficiency for hospital services. In addition, this move towardshealth promotion versus treating needs to be integrated among related sectors as well as creating a continuous improvement plan for sustainability of the system in order to improve reimbursements.
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