title: [Collection and elaboration of the economic information necessary for calculating the costs of therapeutic decisions].
abstract: This article presents a method of evaluating the cost of hospital medical practice. The method used the concept of standard cost to determine these activities. After reviewing the different concepts of cost used by economists, the value of using standard cost for this type of evaluation is demonstrated. This approach has the advantage of making physicians aware of the cost of the decisions they make during their everyday medical activities. The standard cost approach is completed by an evaluation of medical activities in direct cost, so preserving a medical significance of the cost analysis. The method involves breaking down protocols or medical activities into physical modules, the costs of which are calculated. There are three main categories of physical module in the hospital: duration of hospital stay, medico-technical investigations (biology, functional investigations, imaging...) and specific acts (coronary angiography, open heart surgery, angioplasty, pulmonary scan, organ transplants, etc...). When the cost of these modules has been calculated, the frequency of each in the given medical speciality has to be measured and, thereby, the total cost of the technology or medical practice can be assessed. However, this method is based on the hypothesis that the average direct cost calculated is representative of the real consumption of resources in the given practice, which is not always the case. Further decomposition of the physical modules may therefore be required in order to attain this significance while taking care to preserve the medical reality of each module.
authors.affiliation: Service évaluation des technologies nouvelles, direction du plan, Assistance publique, hôpitaux de Paris.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viens-Bitker
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leclercq
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000379:methods; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D013812:Therapeutics
vernacular_title: Collecte et élaboration de l'information économique nécessaire au calcul des coûts de la décision thérapeutique.