| accounting | System of recording financial transactions. (12 Dec 1998) |
|---|---|
| materials management, hospital | The management of all procurement, distribution, and storage of equipment and supplies, as well as logistics management including laundry, processing of reusables, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| financial management, hospital | The obtaining and management of funds for hospital needs and responsibility for fiscal affairs. (12 Dec 1998) |
| costs and cost analysis | Absolute, comparative, or differential costs pertaining to services, institutions, resources, etc., or the analysis and study of these costs. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maintenance and engineering, hospital | Hospital department whose primary function is the upkeep and supervision of the buildings and grounds and the maintenance of hospital physical plant and equipment which requires engineering expertise. (12 Dec 1998) |
| commission on professional and hospital activities | The non-profit, non-governmental organization which collects, processes, and distributes data on hospital use. Two programs of the commission are the professional activity study and the medical audit program. (12 Dec 1998) |
| hospital design and construction | The architecture, functional design, and construction of hospitals. (12 Dec 1998) |
| obstetrics and gynecology department, hospital | Hospital department responsible for the administration and management of services provided for obstetric and gynecologic patients. (12 Dec 1998) |
| equipment and supplies, hospital | Any materials used in providing care specifically in the hospital. (12 Dec 1998) |
| capital cost | The total investment needed to complete a project and bring it to a commercially operable status. The cost of construction of a new plant. The expenditures for the purchase or acquisition of existing facilities. (05 Dec 1998) |
| cost allocation | The assignment, to each of several particular cost-centres, of an equitable proportion of the costs of activities that serve all of them. Cost-centre usually refers to institutional departments or services. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cost-benefit analysis | A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cost control | The containment, regulation, or restraint of costs. Costs are said to be contained when the value of resources committed to an activity is not considered excessive. This determination is frequently subjective and dependent upon the specific geographic area of the activity being measured. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cost-effective | A term describing a resource that is available within the time it is needed and is able to meet or reduce electrical power demand at an estimated incremental system cost no greater than that of the least-costly, similarly reliable and available alternative. (05 Dec 1998) |
| cost of illness | The personal cost of acute or chronic disease. The cost to the patient may be an economic, social, or psychological cost or loss to himself, his family, or community. The cost of illness may be reflected in absenteeism, productivity, response to treatment, peace of mind, quality of life, etc. It differs from health care costs in that this concept is restricted to the cost of providing services related to the delivery of health care rather than an impact on the personal life of the patient. (12 Dec 1998) |