Costs associated with using pharmaceuticals for breast cancer treatment at the Hassan II University Hospital in Fez, Morocco : an ABC method trial

Abstract

Measuring the cost of illness is a critical issue for healthcare organizations nowadays. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the performance of hospitals using the right management control instruments. The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of the ABC (Activity-Based-Costing) method, according to the care pathways of the Hassan II University Hospital in Fez, Morocco, in order to calculate the global cost of a complicated and serious disease such as breast cancer.

Given the methodological choices adopted in the pharmaco-economic cost approach, particular attention was given to the pharmaceutical chain of care in order to estimate the real global cost from the viewpoint of the hospital and to finally determine its impact on the budget allocated to the pharmacy. This study was conducted over a three-year period, with a view to optimizing expenditures and budget control.

The research revealed that the global cost of treating breast cancer is 93736,530.44 MAD, with an average of 40,247.54 MAD per patient throughout the 2329 cases over three years. Therefore, this means that the cost of breast cancer management requires about 14% of the total pharmacy budget.

The implementation of this study provides a reflection on the current and future status of resources allocation, allowing the creation of some norms regarding the cost of production, which could later be used as an indicator to evaluate the performance of health services.