Towards A strategic management accounting, Framework for Cost Management in Egyptian Healthcare Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of strategic management accounting (SMA) to the healthcare industry performance. Although academicians and practitioners believe the implementation of SMA and its techniques are superior to traditional forms of management accounting, it is noted that the adoption of SMA has not been used commonly among healthcare organizations except on a very narrow scale as it is illustrated within the context of the research. This paper first explains the need for managing organizations strategically and the meaning of SMA followed by a presentation of the cost process in healthcare organizations. Secondly, the paper describes the implementation of SMA in the healthcare industry, in order to enhance the hospitals performance and cost management. Another contribution of this paper is that it suggests practical guide for selecting the management accounting techniques for healthcare organizations. The findings showed that the application of SMA is enhancing the quality of the accounting information presented by the costing system, and the quality of the decision-making process in healthcare industry. The paper included a detailed description and analysis of research findings based on extensive survey of healthcare organizations in Egypt.