A Comparative Review of the Fuzzy Activity Based Costing and Traditional Activity Based Costing Model in Hospital Services

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammad Namazi 1
Mohammad Javad Ghaffari 2
Mohammad Ebrahimzade Karizaki 3
1 Professor of Accounting, Shiraz University, (Corresponding author)
2 PHD Student of Accounting, Shiraz University
3 M.A. Student of Accounting, Azad University of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi
Abstract
The purpose of this study is presenting a contemporary model via the fuzzy set theory to address deficiencies related to the estimated data in activity based costing systems. Consequently, in this research an attempt will be made to explore fuzzy numbers to overcome the uncertainty and incorrectness of the cost data. This new system known as the "Fuzzy Activity Based Costing (FABC)" system is employed to calculate and compare the cost of services in diagnostic sections of the Mashhad Razavi Hospital. The results of cost data, by employing Wilcoxon and Friedman nonparametric statistical tests with the confidence of %95, indicate that there is a significant difference between costs calculated by the ABC system and those by the FABC system in the preceding departments. Furthermore, based on the statistical tests conducted, there is a significant difference between costs calculated by each of the two models with the tariffs imposed by the government in the diagnostic sections. These results show that necessary corrections of the government tariffs should also be attempted.
Keywords
Expense
Uncertainty
Fuzzy numbers
Hospital
Fuzzy activity based costing