User Guide to Unit Cost Estimator  

Background Information
The unit cost estimator uses statistical methods to generate a cost per outpatient visit or inpatient admission for a healthcare facility using a set of key variables. To develop the tool, a cost function model was constructed using data from the National Health System Cost Database- Other costing studies data. The unit cost estimator provides estimates of the cost per inpatient admission and cost per outpatient visit for public sector healthcare facilities using data on geographical location, level of health facility, size of the facility and patient load etc.

Type of Estimator

1.	Inpatient Cost Estimator
2.	Outpatient Cost Estimator

Number of States included

1	Andhra Pradesh	11	Jharkhand	21	Punjab
2	Arunachal Pradesh	12	Karnataka	22	Rajasthan
3	Assam	13	Kerala	23	Sikkim
4	Bihar	14	Madhya Pradesh	24	Tamil Nadu
5	Chhattisgarh	15	Maharashtra	25	Telangana
6	Goa	16	Manipur	26	Tripura
7	Gujarat	17	Meghalaya	27	Uttar Pradesh
8	Haryana	18	Mizoram	28	Uttarakhand
9	Himachal Pradesh	19	Nagaland	29	West Bengal
10	Jammu & Kashmir	20	Odisha

Health System Levels included
1.District Hospital
2.Community Health Centre/ Primary health care Centre

Step Guide for Users
When we click on the Access the Unit Cost Estimator button, a default window will open as shown in picture 1.

Picture 1: Default Opening Window

Step 1:
Select the Estimator {Inpatient Cost Estimator} {Outpatient Cost Estimator} for which the user is interested to generate the estimate by clicking the buttons provided in the left panel as shown in picture 1.

*Inpatient Cost Estimator will open in default window open.

Step 2:
Select the state and level of health system for which the user is interested to generate the estimate as shown in picture 2 (Outpatient estimator taken as example).

1.State: Select the state of interest from the dropdown 2.Health system level: Select the level of health system from the dropdown

Picture 2: Selecting State and Health System Level

Step 3:
This step involves providing the data for input variables to generate the cost estimate. There are two options available in this step i.e. if the user has the data available on input variables that data can be inserted in the blank cells. If the data is not available on these variables, state-specific averages are used by the estimator as default values to generate the cost estimate.
1) Number of inpatient beds: Please fill in the actual value for number of beds at the health facility or average number of beds for the level of health facility for your sample as shown in picture 3.1. If you do not enter a value the default value - the state average - will be used.

Picture 3.1: Entering input data for Number of inpatient beds

2) Number of annual outpatient visits: Please fill in the actual value for number of annual outpatient visits for the health facility or average annual outpatient visits for level of health facility as shown in picture 3.2. If you do not enter a value the default value the state average will be used.

Picture 3.2: Entering input data for Number of outpatient visits per year

3) Number of doctors at the facility: Please fill in the actual value for number of doctors at health facility or average doctors for level of health facility (as shown in picture 3.3. If you do not enter a value the default value will be used.

Picture 3.3: Entering input data for Number of doctors at the facility

4) Doctor’s monthly salary (INR): Please fill in the actual value for average salary of doctors for level of health facility as shown in picture 3.4. If you do not enter a value the default value will be used.

Picture 3.4: Entering input data for Doctors’ monthly salary (INR)

Step 4: When the step 2 is complete, click on the Submit button. The cost estimator will produce the estimates for selected State selected Health system level. Results can be generated in 3 ways depending on information entered by user for input variables as shown in picture 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3.
1) In case the user enters the values for all the input variables i.e. Number of inpatient beds, Number of Outpatient visits per year, Number of doctors at the facility and Doctors’ monthly salary (INR).

Picture 4.1: Generating results

2) In case the user enters the values for all the input variables i.e. Number of inpatient beds and Number of Outpatient visits per year.

Picture 4.2: Generating results

3) In case the user does not enter the value for any of the input variables, the state averages will be used as default information (Please see Methods for more detail). The Default values are in the form of *Read only format.

Picture 4.3: Generating results

Step 5: The output generated will have a mean estimate of unit cost per outpatient visit and 2.5th and 97.5th confidence limits for the mean estimate in Indian National Rupee (INR)
Note: All the steps for Inpatient Cost Estimator are same as for the Outpatient Cost Estimator.

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