Cost estimation by ABC method of the imaging services of a private hospital in Managua, Nicaragua

Abstract

National referral hospitals offer a wide range of medical services, each one with its own complexity. Imaging studies play a fundamental role, since they help to guarantee the integral medical care of patients. This research is based on the estimation of costs applying the ABC (Cost Based Activity) method of an Imaging service in a private hospital in the city of Managua in Nicaragua, a national reference hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional and retrospective study was carried out, taking the data recorded in the year 2021 for a total of 204,477 studies performed in all modalities, of which 169,793 corresponded to X-Rays 120,579 (58. 96%), Tomography 12,376 (6.05%), Magnetic Resonance Imaging 4,952 (2.42%) and Ultrasound 31, 994 (15.64%), and the most frequent studies were taken were chest X-ray, chest tomography, full abdomen ultrasound and lumbar spine MRI. Since the study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine complied with all the assistance processes and there was access to the costs of supplies and labor, the estimation of the cost of MRI was made as a model, obtaining a total cost of: C$ 6,236.72 córdobas equivalent to $170.9308 US dollars, according to the reference exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Nicaragua August 2023. Concluding that: the calculated cost is equivalent to 50% of the cheapest cost in relation to the national market and that the ABC costing methodology is reproducible and applicable to this sector of the health area; in addition, its use can help hospital managers to make better decisions regarding the competitiveness of the national market.