Unit cost of Mohs and Dermasurgery Unit.
BACKGROUND
Appropriate pricing for medical services of not-for-profit hospital is necessary. The prices should be fair to the public and should be high enough to cover the operative costs of the organization.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the cost and unit cost of medical services performed at the Mohs and Dermasurgery Unit (MDU), Department of Dermatology, The University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX from the healthcare provider's perspective.


METHODS
MDU costs were retrieved from the Financial Department for fiscal year 2006. The patients' statistics were acquired from medical records for the same period. Unit cost calculation was based on the official method of hospital accounting.


RESULTS
The overall unit cost for each patient visit was $673.99 United States dollar (USD). The detailed unit cost of nurse visit, new patient visit, follow-up visit, consultation, Mohs and non-Mohs procedure were, respectively, $368.27, $580.09, $477.82, $585.52, $1,086.12 and $858.23 USD. With respect to a Mohs visit, the unit cost per lesion and unit cost per stage were $867.89 and $242.30 USD respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Results from this retrospective study provide information that may be used for pricing strategy and resource allocation by the administrative board of MDU.
Wanitphakdeedecha
R
R
Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. sirwn@mahidol.ac.th
Nguyen
T H
TH
Chen
T M
TM
D000066:Accounting / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D002201:Capital Expenditures; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D003880:Dermatology / Q000191:economics*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000191:economics*; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D015580:Mohs Surgery / Q000191:economics*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000451:nursing / Q000601:surgery*; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000191:economics; D013781:Texas; D013785:Thailand