The Cost of Medical Services per Patient and the Efficiency of Hospital Care Activity – an Insight from the Romanian Hospitals

Abstract

The cost of medical services is a concept which cannot be overlooked from the managerial strategy of hospitals, given the fact that it reflects the expenses incurred in order to make the medical act possible. It adds up the direct and indirect costs which are recorded under hospital departments, regarded as cost centres. The result of the calculation is materialized in Expenses Settlement drawn for every discharged patient. The cost thus determined underlies the calculation of efficiency, both at hospital level and at each department and helps at conducting comparative analyses between different health care institutions. In fact, hospital financing is based on average costs established per case, according to the diagnosis groups. The financing system allows monitoring the quality of services and increasing efficiency through cost control. The present study analyses the calculation of the cost of medical services and of the efficiency for average level hospitals from Romania.