[Business administration of PET facilities: a cost analysis of three facilities utilizing delivery FDG].
BACKGROUND
PET (positron emission tomography) has been proved to be a powerful imaging tool in clinical oncology. The number of PET facilities in Japan has remarkably increased over the last decade. Furthermore, the approval of delivery FDG in 2005 resulted in a tremendous expansion of the PET institutions without a cyclotron facility. The aim of this study was to conduct a cost analysis of PET institutions that utilized delivery FDG.


METHODS
Three PET facilities using delivery FDG were investigated about the costs for PET service. Fixed costs included depreciation costs for construction and medical equipments such as positron camera. Variable costs consisted of costs for medical materials including delivery FDG. The break-even point was analyzed in each of three institutions.


RESULTS
In the three hospitals (A, B and C), the annual number of PET scan was 1,591, 1,637 and 914, while cost per scan was accounted as yen 110,262, yen 111,091, and yen 134,192, respectively. The break-even point was calculated to be 2,583, 2,679 and 2,081, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
PET facilities utilizing delivery FDG seemed to have difficulty in business administration. Such a situation suggests the possibility that the current supply of PET facilities might exceed actual demand for the service. The efficiency of resource allocation should be taken into consideration in the future health service researches on PET.
Mitsutake
Naohiro
N
Healthcare Related Informatics, 22nd Century Medical and Research Center, The University of Tokyo Hospital.
Oku
Shinya
S
Fujii
Ryo
R
Furui
Yuji
Y
Yasunaga
Hideo
H
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000191:economics*; D006268:Health Facilities / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000191:economics*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000191:economics*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18