Introduction: The steady growth of spending on healthcare and the limited availability of resources make it necessary to include cost analysis among the tools used for hospital management. AIMS. To obtain the hospitalisation operating statement of a neurology service and to analyse the differences with regard to costs per process.
Patients and methods: The study involved an analysis of costs per process in the neurology service of a referral hospital in the Valencian Community (400,000 inhabitants). The data used were those concerning health care activity in 2008 according to the information registered by the Economic Information System of the Valencian Regional Ministry of Health; ABC and top-down methods were applied to calculate the cost per process. The results thus obtained were compared with the fees established for hospital production in the Valencian Regional Government's Law on Fees.
Results: For a production of 1092 hospital discharges, with a case-mix index of 0.96 and a mean length of stay of 9.2 days with a case mix of 1.91, hospitalisation costs came to 4,411,643.45 euros, with a mean cost per process of 2,111.46 euros. Taking into account the fees that were applied, the difference between income and expenditure was -12,770.39 euros. The diagnosis-related groups with the greatest difference were numbers 14 (-246,392.49 euros), 533 (-90,292.49 euros) and 15 (-55,139.66 euros).
Conclusions: The hospitalisation profit and loss account obtained is negative due to the fact that the mean length of stay in the service is longer than expected, above all in diagnosis-related groups 14, 533 and 15, which are the most inefficient.