The Excellence of Activity-Based Costing in Cost Calculation: Case Study of A Private Hospital in Turkey

Abstract

Due to the instable global economic conditions, rising healthcare costs, competitive environment, a long term program for the betterment of the health system (health transformation program) in Turkey and increase in the population, better knowledge on cost components, accurate cost calculation for activities, identification of non-value-added activities, and recognition of the activities consuming bigger resources are much more important in today’s economy. Therefore, activity-based costing (ABC) is an answer to all concerns. It provides private, government, and university hospitals with reliable cost information and it helps managers identify costly, unprofitable services and improve the pricing policy. The aim of the paper is to prove the excellence of ABC approach in the health sector by implementing activity-based costing in a private hospital in Istanbul, Turkey and by comparing superior ABC results with those of traditional costing. This paper is the first study on ABC having detailed analysis of literature survey and in depth case study of the implementation of ABC in a service firm. In simpler terms, previous papers did not analyze the “various aspects” of the ABC on one paper, which is the main contribution of the paper. Finally, it raises the attention of the practitioners, government, and academics to the superiority of the ABC method for the “health sector”.