This book applies activity-based costing and activity-based management techniques to health care in a very practical guide that offers health care administrators and students 'hands-on' forms, worksheets, report formats, examples of activity-based costing and activity-based management planning and information, and actual case studies.

In the classroom, ABC looks like a great way to manage a company’s resources. But many executives who have tried to implement ABC on a large scale in their organizations have found the approach limiting and frustrating. Why? The employee surveys that companies used to estimate resources required for business activities proved too time-consuming, expensive, and irritating to employees. This book shows you how to implement time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), an easier and more powerful way to implement ABC. You can now estimate directly the resource demands imposed by each business transaction, product, or customer. The payoff? You spend less time and money obtaining and maintaining TDABC data—and more time addressing problems that TDABC reveals, such as inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity. The authors also show how to use TDABC to link strategic planning to operational budgeting, to enhance the due diligence process for mergers and acquisitions, and to support continuous improvement activities such as lean management and benchmarking. In presenting their model, the authors define the two questions required to build TDABC: 1) How much does it cost per time unit to supply resource capacity for each business process? 2) How much resource capacity (time) is required to perform work for a company’s many transactions, products, and customers? The book demonstrates how to develop simple, valid answers to these two questions. Kaplan and Anderson illustrate the TDABC approach with a wealth of case studies, in diverse settings, based on actual implementations.

Proven strategy for reducing production and operating costs while increasing profits As the growth of the Internet shifts power to consumers, the pressure on companies to keep prices low will continue to mount. Increasingly corporations are relying on "margin management" and supply chain management as a means of keeping prices low while raising profits. Activity-based costing and management (ABC/M) data is key to succeeding in both these critical management strategies. This book explains how executives can effectively use the information furnished by cutting-edge ABC/M systems. The author, an acknowledged expert in the field, clearly defines the ABC/M system and explains how to use the information it provides for best results. He provides a rational framework for understanding the fifteen key defining characteristics of ABC/M and arms readers with an ABC/M Readiness Assessment test along with extremely user-friendly exhibits.

Provides an in-depth look at cost accounting for healthcare managers. Covers the foundations of cost accounting, information for planning and control, tools to aid in decision making, and future trends.

Publisher Description

By now, most companies know that activity-based costing, an innovative accounting system that breaks down overhead far more precisely than old-fashioned systems do, can be used to trim waste, improve service, and make better product-mix and pricing decisions. Yet the actual design and implementation of a successful ABC system remains largely a mystery for many companies. Analyzes the experiences of eight real-life companies who took on the challenge of implementing an ABC system, revealing the mistakes, successes, and ultimate triumphs that resulted in each case. Winner of the Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award.

This book offers an overview of service design practices for healthcare and hospital management. It explores how these practices can help to generate innovations in healthcare and contribute to the improvement of patient-centered care. Respected experts, including scholars from various disciplines and practitioners from healthcare institutions, share essential insights into established research areas, fields of work and work structures, and discuss successful approaches, methods and tools. By illustrating innovative services, products, processes, systems, and technologies, as well as their application in practice, the authors highlight the role of participating stakeholders in service design projects and the added value that comes from sharing, communicating, networking and collaborating. This book is a must-read for scholars and practitioners in the hospital and healthcare sector. It will also appeal to anyone interested in organizational development, service business model innovation, customer involvement and perceptions, and service experience.