Abstract: In family planning programs, cost data can be used to monitor operations, measure productivity and efficiency, evaluate performance over time, and determine fees in relation to the true cost of services. This issue of "The Family Planning Manager" provides basic worksheets for calculating the costs of the two most expensive yet controllable family planning program components: personnel and contraceptive products. Sample worksheets are presented for the 4 basic costing procedures: 1) determining the total cost of family planning personnel; 2) allocating personnel costs to different types of family planning visits and methods; 3) determining the cost of contraceptive products; and 4) calculating the total personnel and contraceptive supplies cost per unit of service, type of visit, or year of use. Application of this analysis at a Rwandan family planning clinic revealed that a first visit for a 2-month injectable user was more costly than one for a 3-month user due to product cost differences; moreover, the cost-effectiveness of Norplant was very close to that of the pill and injectables when the expected duration of action of the implants was considered. In Indonesia, analysis indicated that the average cost of a maternal-child health/family planning visit was 2.5 times higher in one clinic than in another with similar resources, primarily because the lower unit cost facility was providing 350% more visits.
Publication Year: 1993
Publication Date: 1993-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['pubmed']
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