[Cost analysis of home care with activity-based costing (ABC)].
OBJECTIVE
This study was carried out to substantiate the application process of activity-based costing on the current cost of hospital home care (HHC) service. The study materials were documents, 120 client charts, health insurance demand bills, salary of 215 HHC nurses, operating expense, 6 HHC agencies, and 31 HHC nurses.


METHODS
The research was carried out by analyzing the HHC activities and then collecting labor and operating expenses. For resource drivers, HHC activity performance time and workload were studied. For activity drivers, the number of HHC activity performances and the activity number of visits were studied.


RESULTS
The HHC activities were classified into 70 activities. In resource, the labor cost was 245 won per minute, operating cost was 9,570 won per visit and traffic expense was an average of 12,750 won. In resource drivers, education and training had the longest time of 67 minutes. Average length of performance for activities was 13.7 minutes. The workload was applied as a relative value. The average cost of HHC was 62,741 won and the cost ranged from 55,560 won to 74,016 won.


CONCLUSIONS
The fixed base rate for a visit in the current HHC medical fee should be increased. Exclusion from the current fee structure or flexible operation of traveling expenses should be reviewed.
Lee
Su-Jeong
SJ
Home Health-Hospice Research Institute, Seoul 136-761, Korea. spinalcord@korea.com
D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005249:Fees and Charges; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based / Q000191:economics*; D007723:Korea; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis