Determining productivity and unit costs in a bacteriology laboratory

Area of Science:

• Medical Laboratory Science
• Health Economics

Background:

• Clinical microbiology departments face challenges in accurately costing services.
• Understanding service profitability is crucial for financial sustainability and strategic decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline a methodology for identifying and costing clinical microbiology services.
• To determine the profitability of services relative to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) fee scale.
• To provide data for assessing departmental financial performance and outsourcing viability.

Main Methods:

• Identification of departmental "products" or services.
• Determination of resource requirements for each service.
• Calculation of total resource costs and unit costs.
• Comparison of calculated costs against the OHIP fee scale.

Main Results:

• Identification of profitable services and those with costs exceeding OHIP reimbursement.
• Assessment of the overall financial profitability of the clinical microbiology division.
• Data generated for evaluating the financial implications of contracting out services.

Conclusions:

• The described process enables accurate financial assessment of clinical microbiology services.
• It supports informed decisions regarding service viability and potential outsourcing.
• This methodology is essential for optimizing resource allocation and financial management in clinical laboratories.