The costs of producing a unit of blood in Zimbabwe
BACKGROUND There is lack of published data on the costs of blood and blood transfusion in sub‐Saharan Africa. This study aimed to assess the unit costs of producing blood in Zimbabwe using an activity‐based costing (ABC) method. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS A management accounting approach, based on the...
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Published in | Transfusion (Philadelphia, Pa.) Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 628 - 636 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.03.2016
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | BACKGROUND
There is lack of published data on the costs of blood and blood transfusion in sub‐Saharan Africa. This study aimed to assess the unit costs of producing blood in Zimbabwe using an activity‐based costing (ABC) method.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
A management accounting approach, based on the ABC method, was used to develop a cost model for blood. The production of blood was broken down into recruitment, collection, testing, processing, and storage plus distribution. Data for the year 2013 were collected retrospectively from budgets, financial and expenditure reports, databases, and interviews with transfusion personnel and managers. All direct and indirect costs, in 2013 US$, were allocated, accordingly, to the activities of blood acquisition.
RESULTS
The total cost of producing safe blood in Zimbabwe for the year 2013 was US$8.6 million. Variable costs accounted for 51.2% of the total cost of production. The unit production costs for red blood cells (RBCs) were US$15.94 for recruitment, US$34.62 for collection, US$17.88 for testing, US$11.49 for processing, and US$3.06 for storage plus distribution. The overall cost of production of one unit of whole blood was US$118.42 and RBCs was US$130.94 constituting 12.4 and 13.7% of the country's annual GDP per capita.
CONCLUSIONS
The high unit cost of producing blood relative to the annual GDP per capita demonstrates that acquiring safe blood is a burden on the health care sector in Zimbabwe. Introducing additional safety measures, such as nucleic acid amplification testing and pathogen reduction technology, although desirable, will further increase this burden. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-5HL20S6C-H ArticleID:TRF13405 European Union Seventh Framework Programme - No. FP7/2007-2013; No. 266194 istex:EDA84BAA0FDB0239069EEF334F4818E91227D57E The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007‐2013) under Grant Agreement 266194. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0041-1132 1537-2995 |
DOI: | 10.1111/trf.13405 |