ABSTRACT
For many years social workers have been concerned about the effects of reduced length of hospital stay on patients and families. There has been concern that the time pressured atmosphere of treatment reduces the patient’s self determination in decision making about their treatment and plans for their future and contributes to problems experienced while in the hospital and after discharge. The use of activity based costing in place of measures of productivity which rely on social work time or on costs in terms of standard cost per social work hour has much to offer in examination of what services use in resources. Use of activity based costing, which requires effort to trace costs from work activities to the product or service, does have the potential to give more accurate understanding of how resources are used and which factors are associated with increased use of social work resources.
