Furthermore, TDABC results provided the outpatient
clinic’s managers with a proxy for the cost of a consultation
activity. They figured out that a consultation activity
absorbs about 53% of the total cost of a non-technical standard
consultation, while this is about 67% of the total cost
of a technical standard consultation. This higher percentage
in costs of a consultation activity within the technical
consultation was explained by the higher use of medical
materials and sophisticated machinery for technical consultations.
A capacity analysis of the computers showed
that the intensity of using the computers was rather low.
As a solution, the digitalization of the medical files was
suggested. A comparison of standard costs at service level
also reflected some serious differences between the centralized
and non-centralized secretariats due to economies
of scale. As the cost of the centralized services lies in average
2.2D lower for a non-technical consultations, this meant a
cost saving of 33% at patient level (Table 5).4 Next to cen-