Abstract

Introduction: The increase in the cost of healthcare facilities, especially in the hospitals that account for more than 60% of the government health expenditure, has limited the government ability in other social and developmental issues. The study was conducted to determine the difference between the costs of selected services in 32-bed university hospitals with first-class 24-hour comprehensive health centers in cities (with 20,000 to 50,000 People) in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. Methods: The study was descriptive-analytical conducted as cross-sectional in 2017. Five joint services (physician visit, injection and dressing and level-one laboratory items, level-one radiology items and level-one pharmacy items) were selected to match and provide comparable conditions. Data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist. Total costs were calculated using Activity Based Costing (ABC) approach in Excel software. Results: The total cost of Lali Hospital was 14,659,758,900 and Khajeh Ghaleh Center 8,158,440,236. Total costs of selected services at Lali Hospital were 194,449, 83,800, 41,945, 691,464 and 71,457, respectively, and at Ghaleh Khajeh Center they were 188,577, 37,435, and 9,273, 597,831 and 49,327, respectively. According to the results, the total cost of all selected services at Ghaleh Khajeh Center was lower than that of Lali Hospital. Conclusion: The study can greatly help policymakers, planners and health system managers in cost analysis and control. It looks that developing and strengthening health centers in low-populated cities by providing more suitable and cheaper services on the one hand, and meet the expectations of the local people and political authorities on the other‎.