Cost information in the new public sector environment: a case study of cost accounting change within a state owned teaching and research hospital

This paper reports on a case study of the utilisation and users of cost information in a state-owned teaching and research hospital in Australia. The findings indicate that the current utilisation of the cost inforamtion resides primarily at higher executive and managerial levels of the organisation. The major organisational change, particularly pressure for improved productivity and competitiveness driven by the wave of recent public sector reforms in Australia, is significantly filtering down throughout the subject hospital. Various productive and unproductive ways that cost information are used and impediments to the use of costing inforamtion in the hospital setting are also identified.