2001 Volume 10 Pages 5-20
Cost containment of health care costs is an issue in Japan. If a prospective payment system such as DRG/PPS is introduced, hospitals will have to make efforts to increase clinical and administrative efficiency of providing health care while maintaining quality. To achieve this, measuring efficiency of the operating room is essential. In this study, a university hospital in the Tokyo municipal area was used as the study field and surgical operations performed between April of 1997 and March of 1999 were retrospectively investigated. Operating room utilization was analyzed and cost analysis was conducted on 10 diseases, which were frequently treated surgically at the hospital. Operating room utilization was 77.49% and average sales/cost ratio of the 10 diseases was 48.59%. The results obtained from our method of analysis may be lower than the actual cost but should be sufficient for practical administrative purposes.
