New Public Management Reforms in the Portuguese NHS: The Role of Traditional and Activity-Based Costing Systems in these Reforms

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Célia Picoito (Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Portugal)and Maria João Major (ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal)
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 16
Source title: Handbook of Research on ICTs and Management Systems for Improving Efficiency in Healthcare and Social Care
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha (Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, Portugal), Isabel Maria Miranda (Municipality of Guimarães, Portugal)and Patricia Gonçalves (School of Technology at the Polytechnic Institute of Cavado and Ave, Portugal)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-3990-4.ch060

Keywords: Health Information Systems / Medical Information Science Reference / Medicine & Healthcare

Purchase

View New Public Management Reforms in the Portuguese NHS: The Role of Traditional and Activity-Based Costing Systems in these Reforms on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) is a global paradigm that affects all public sectors, health included. Following the course of NPM reforms, Portuguese hospitals adopted a more business-oriented approach. Among various transformations hospitals have been through, the way they are financed changed from a retrospective finance system, based on a budget determined by the previous year’s costs, to “contratos-programa” that are established between each hospital, the provider, and Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS), the financier. Once these “contrato-programa” are based in prices per production lines, it is extremely important to have an effective cost system that can calculate accurate costs for each production line. With this purpose, in 2007 a pilot project was initiated to replace the existing and mandatory cost department method by Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method. In this chapter, the authors analyze the changes performed in the Portuguese hospitals by NPM movement and the role that traditional (cost department) and ABC methods play in it.

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

New Public Management Reforms in the Portuguese NHS: The Role of Traditional and Activity-Based Costing Systems in these Reforms

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors