Cost-Benefit Analysis In Health Care

The key to distinguishing a cost-benefit from a cost-effectiveness analysis is to examine the units of measurement used in the analysis. Cost-benefit relies on a common measure, with costs and benefits expressed in monetary units. If the costs and outcomes of a program are expressed in dollars, for example, the analysis is a cost-benefit. Cost-effectiveness analysis measures project results in units rather than monetary figures.

“For example, a cost-effectiveness analysis of a company wellness program might study the program in terms of its costs versus the reduction in sick days taken by employees. A cost-benefit analysis of the same program could measure benefits as the money the company saved in reduced sick days.” (Reinhardt, 2009).Moreover,

Asset identification is the process of determining what people, property and information are critical to the mission of the hospital. People assets may include doctors, nurses, and patients along with other persons such as visitors and support personnel. A hospital’s property assets consist of both tangible and intangible items. Tangible assets are usually simple to identify, while intangible assets, such as the hospital’s reputation, are more difficult to identify and assign a dollar value. For all hospitals, information assets include medical records. While all assets have value, not all assets are critical to the hospital’s mission.Valani (2006) states that “Critical assets, then, are those assets necessary for the hospital to carry out its

Other critical assets may not be as evident and must be identified during this step of the risk assessment process. One common way of identifying critical assets is to interviews and/or survey the people charged with carrying out the hospital’s mission. Questionnaires of department administrators can also help to identify assets. Regardless of the technique used to identify assets, it is crucial to identify all critical assets to ensure that they are considered during the risk assessment. Valani (2006) states “the second step of the risk assessment process is the security inventory. Typically, a hospital has already deployed various security measures throughout the facility orcampus to resolve past security problems, thus the risk assessment is measuring mitigated risk, in contrast to raw risk.” These security measures may include policies and procedures, physical security equipment, security personnel, or some combination of these measures. Security policies and procedures may