HOSPITAL FINANCED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 159, 20 June 1931, Page 5

HOSPITAL FINANCED

THE COSTING PROBLEM. “Hospitals might with advantage be regarded as large industries where results are assessed in relation to the cost of attaining them,” writes Dr. A. R. Friel, in the “Lancet.” “Every modern factory has a system of costings, and these are scrutinised carefully. In the factory the work carried out may be thought of as coming under one of the three headings—Policy, Organisation, and Technique. This division could also be applied to work in hospitals, and in all of them is is possible that improvements in our hospitals may be effected. A system of costings would make it plain in what particulars a change might with advantage be made. Costings should be estimated from the point of view of the patients, the hospitals, and the staff. “It would be well to begin by assessing the patient’s industrial disability when he first came, and later when he was discharged from furtreatment. The number of visits

he had to pay, the distance he travelled, the money it cost him, and the time he spent coming and going and at the hospital should be taken into account. “On the part of the hospital, we have the overhead charges the medicine given to the patient, th; dressings used, the cost of certain special investigations, X-ray and pathological, and of applications of special forms of treatment such as light, manipulation, electrical, heat, baths, etc. “The staff costings should not be merely money statements but should include also time and energy expended by the doctor and by the hospital staff. “It is not suggested that a system of costings should be instituted in every hospital at once, but an investigation in a hospital of moderate size would furnish much information. ’ ’