Digital vs conventional radiography: cost and revenue analysis

The objective of this study was to analyse and compare the operating and in vestment costs of two radiographic systems, a conventional and a digital on e. and to evaluate the cost/revenue ratio of the two systems. The radiologi cal activity over 1 year for chest and skeletal exams was evaluated: 13,401 chest and 7,124 skeletal exams were considered. The following parameters o f variable costs were evaluated: the difference between variable proportion al costs of the two technologies, the effective variable cost of any film, including the chemicals, and for different sizes of digital film, variable costs of chest plus skeletal exams performed with the two techniques. After wards the economical effect was considered taking into account depreciation during a time of utilization ranging between 8 and 4 years. In the second part of the analysis the total cost and the revenues of the two technologie s were determined. The comparison between the digital and conventional syst ems has shown the following aspects: 1. Digital radiography system has a mu ch higher investment cost in comparison with the conventional one. 2. Opera ting; costs of digital equipment are higher or lower depending on the film size used. Evaluating chest Xray we reach a breakeven point after 1 year an d 10,000 exams only if displayed over 8 x 10-in. film and after 30,000 if d isplayed over a 11 x 14-in. film. 3. The total cost (variable cost, technol ogy cost, labour cost) of digital technology is lower than that of the conv entional system by 20% on average using 8 x 10-in. film size. 4. Digital te chnology also allows lesser film waste and lesser film per exam.