PROCESS COSTING

Inherent to improving healthcare processes is understanding how much they cost. And while there are many ways of costing processes, an underlying challenge to most of them is to simultaneously identify how much the process should cost if the underlying resources used to perform them are effectively utilized, and also determining whether those resources are effectively utilized.

At the request and recommendation of Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, Director General of the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Phil has supervised two Time Driven Activity Based Costing analyses:

• In the first of these analyses Phil supervised Sam Waserman's costing of ordinary cataract procedures at the Jewish General Hospital. In that analysis, not only did Sam determine the cost of the procedure in a rigorous manner, he also used the costing analysis to identify opportunities for reducing the procedure's cost.

  With Sam Waserman and Lawrence Rosenberg, Using Time Driven Activity Based Costing To Improve Hospital Decision Making And Performance, SHS 2013.

• In the second of these analyses Phil supervised Alexandru Popp's costing of laundry services at the Jewish General Hospital. This analysis was critical for the hospital as it was considering outsourcing its laundry operation at the time. The results of the costing analysis, as well as subsequent actions taking by laundry management, convinced senior hospital management that it was better off keeping its laundry operations in house.