A survey on activity-based costing in Rudan health center, Hormozgan, Iran

Introduction: The health sector plays an important role in the structure of society, so that any investment in this sector influences the efficiency of economic and social activities. The most important requirements of economic reform in health sector, is the reform of budgeting methods and its resources distribution. The aim of this study was determination of the requirements for activity-based budget in Rudan health center. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional which was performed in 2008. In this study, 5 rural health centers, an urban health center and an urban were selected. In this study, the data related of each activity were collected and analyzed. Results: In this study, the budget of health funds under two rows of urban and rural program were investigated. Based on amount and unit cost of activities related to each program, required budget of rural health program, including family health activity, environmental health, school health, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases was about 42 billion Rials and suggested budget for urban health program, including family health activity, environmental health, school health, prevention and treatment of infectious and non infectious diseases, was 6 billion Rials. Conclusion: The current method of budgeting is not responding the real needs of health centers. Therefore, performance based budgeting method is recommended. In this method, type and amount of each activity will determinate the required budget estimate based on unit cost of each activity.