The Role of Unitary Cost Data Records for Decision Making in the Romanian Health System

Abstract

At present, in Romania there is no unitary system for collecting cost data at the hospital level, so the policies in the field are not based entirely on valid and solid evidence.

One of the current trends in health management is the use effectiveness and efficiency indicators in the evidence-based decision-making process.

The variability of medical practice is one of the elements that lead to difficulties in the analysis of cost and outcome data.

In order to stay at the basis for decisions, cost data must be uniformly collected and must use a unitary methodology and tools, so that their processing and aggregation and analysis can be done without compromise and avoiding the induction of systematic errors and thus invalidity of data and results obtained from these data.

A detailed knowledge of resources consumption patterns in hospitals is needed and this should be complemented with an in-depth cost analysis in order to be able to calculate standard costs and relative values that allow a real and informed assessment of the level of consumption in hospitals.