Perceptions of radiotherapy employees on radiotherapy costing in KZN Health Provincial Hospitals.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Radiotherapy as a critical and cost-effective discipline that treats cancer has its own challenges of radiotherapy patient access, caused by the lack of investments due to the substantial financial constraints, high costs of equipment, human resources and building infrastructure. This makes it difficult for the KZNHealth to control the cancer epidemic. The role of costing in radiotherapy would provide the quality services when there is a challenge of limited resources and budget cuts and provide a gateway towards the investments in radiotherapy to improve radiotherapy access. The aim of this study was to obtain empirical data on the perceptions of the radiotherapy employees regarding the radiotherapy costing, which can be used to improve patient’s radiotherapy access at the three KZNHealth provincial hospitals that are providing radiotherapy services. This was a qualitative study conducted through primary data collection; semi-structured approach was set for the face-to-face interview to 32 of 61 radiotherapy employees. The sampling that suited the study was the convenient, non–probability sampling, as the participants were selected because of their convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher, as well as their knowledge of the subject matter. Participants were from the radiotherapy departments of these hospitals: Addington, Greys and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central. The results of the study revealed a problem with patient radiotherapy access, as the patient numbers demanding the treatment exceeded the capacity of the resources available, thus leading to longer patient waiting periods. The study reveals that more staff is required as current staffing impact negatively on their performance. It reveals the need to treat limited resources like equipment with care for the longer use and the practise of culture of cost saving measures in radiotherapy. It highlighted the need for hospital management to involvement with the radiotherapy department as they are the bridge between radiotherapy department and policy makers. The recommendation from the study shows that costing intervention based on TDABC (modified ABC) need to be adopted by the radiotherapy departments in KZNHealth to resolve these challenges. TDABC will track down the unsaved cost, improve operational efficiency, improve resources allocation and the accurate radiotherapy cost will be used to influence the policy makers for the informed decisions regarding the investments in radiotherapy, thus improving radiotherapy access. KEYWORDS: radiotherapy access, radiotherapy costing, KZNHealth, ABC.