In order to compare the costs of an anaemia treatment with erythrocyte concentrate to the treatment with IV iron, Hict was asked to assess the true acquisition cost of erythrocyte concentrate in different European health care systems by using a standardised methodology.
The cost of blood products is regularly underestimated since the acquisition cost does not represent the total cost for obtaining and producing blood components. Historical accounting attempts to assess the cost of erythrocyte concentrate have varied in scope, perspective and methodology, leading to incomparable and criticised conclusions.
Hict developed a generic model for the identification and allocation of all costs involved in obtaining and transfusing erythrocyte concentrate (the true cost production cost of EC). A management accounting approach, based on the Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC) methodology, was chosen to develop the cost model because of its ability to capture a wide spectrum of the indirect costs and also the cost for unused capacity .
Inputs from 3 Swedish and 3 Spanish blood centres were consolidated to develop a country specific model for Sweden and Spain., resulting in a representative cost for both countries.
The following steps were carried out for the development of the generic model and the hospital/country specific models.
The methodology of this cost analysis is described in a poster presentation, as are the results of for the Spanish hospitals.
