Patient-Level Cost Estimation for Health Services at Secondary Hospital, Saudi Arabia

Asim Mehmood; Zafar Ahmed; Fahad Khan Azeez; Sohail Akhtar; Wajiha Rehman; Sumaira Idrees

doi:10.3889/oamjms.2022.10724

Authors

Asim Mehmood Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2343-7283
Zafar Ahmed Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia; Department of Social Work Education and Community Wellbeing, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6609-7314
Fahad Khan Azeez Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0557-9691
Sohail Akhtar Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
Wajiha Rehman Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8899-549X
Sumaira Idrees Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2022.10724

Keywords:

Health services cost, Patient-level costing, Secondary hospital, Saudi Arabia, Top-down costing

Abstract

Cost information can help to improve the quality of medical care budgeting, and it can also improve the efficient allocation of resources and patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to estimate the inpatient unit cost of healthcare services in a secondary hospital in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional retrospective approach was applied to categorize the inpatients discharged from the hospital from January to December 2018. A top-down costing method for cost estimation was used. We found that the overhead cost center holds 40.17% of the total hospital cost, and intermediate and final care cost centers consumed 25.50% and 34.33%, respectively. Among inpatients wards, the Surgical ward had the highest operational cost (39.27%). Human resources consumed the hospital's highest resources (75%) on salaries. The hospital's cost structure was not remarkable and needs revolutionary changes to adopt the new payment mechanism envisioned in the 2030 Saudi vision.

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