Performance Analysis for Transformation in Healthcare Group

Current projects

Analysis of Fixed and Variable Costs in NSW Public Hospitals, 2024–2025

The PATH Group, in collaboration with NSW Health, is currently conducting a fixed and variable costing analysis for NSW public hospitals' Activity Based Funding (ABF) model. This ongoing project examines 3 to 5 years of cost behaviour to better inform funding models and improve hospital resource allocation. The study aims to enhance financial sustainability by providing insights into long-term cost patterns, particularly focusing on fixed expenditures in healthcare settings.

Western NSW Local Health District Elective Surgery Project, 2024–2025

The PATH group is currently collaborating with Western NSW Local Health District on a strategic project to optimise elective surgery management across the region. This ongoing study focuses on analysing five years of de-identified patient data related to elective surgery waitlists and theatre utilisation. The project aims to develop a production management tool for forecasting and planning, enhancing equity of access, improving care delivery timing, and maximising system efficiency. 

Fixed and Variable Costing Analysis at WNSWLHD

The PATH Group will analyse and separate the fixed and variable cost components relating to the running of block-funded hospitals (or others, in place of block-funded hospitals if required) in Western NSW LHD to better inform the funding and budgeting of resources at these hospitals.

Out-of-Hospital Care (OHC) Costing & Business Case Analysis of Virtual Health

In this project, the PATH group will document and account the value delivered by OHC services driven by Western NSW LHD to its resource utilisation across a period of 3 years. The OHC initiative aims to deliver an integrated, convenient and proactive healthcare service available around the clock in WNSW LHD in a manner that is less constrained by the limitations of geographic distance.

Evidencing the positive impact of procurement innovation in healthcare at NSLHD: a pilot case study – 2023

The PATH Group is collaborating with North Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) to document the positive impact of procurement innovation on value-based healthcare services. This pilot case study aims to empirically capture success stories, showcasing how innovative procurement practices contribute to value-based decision-making in healthcare. The project intends to create a template for best-in-class procurement functions across NSW and potentially Australia-wide. Activities are currently paused as stakeholders reassess priorities and resources.

Completed projects

Review of NDSS Funding Allocation Methodology – June 2024

The report by the PATH Group, commissioned by Diabetes Australia (DA), examines funding allocation methods for the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). It investigates best practices in funding allocation, evaluates NDSS priority area rankings, and reviews the current funding model. The aim was to optimise resource allocation to achieve strategic objectives and improve outcomes for Australians living with diabetes within the NDSS framework.

ABM Case Study Project – January 2024

The PATH Group, in collaboration with NSW Health, has completed a comprehensive study documenting the successful implementation and utilisation of the Activity Based Management Portal (ABM Portal) across the NSW Health ecosystem. This project identified and analysed examples of how costing data improved task efficiency, enhanced data-driven decision-making, and ultimately led to better patient outcomes. The completed study has produced a portfolio of success stories, providing actionable insights that have contributed to transforming healthcare delivery and enhancing patient experiences throughout NSW Health.

NEP22 & COVID-19: Analysing Modelling Approaches in Times of Crisis – November 2022

The PATH Group was commissioned to conduct a review of the National Efficient Price 2022 (NEP22) process and methodology for NSW Health. This completed study assessed the NEP22 model's goodness-of-fit in light of COVID-19 disruptions. The project examined the complex task of determining the National Efficient Price amidst pandemic-induced changes in healthcare delivery, considering altered hospital operations and patient activity. The analysis aimed to inform future pricing models during times of crisis.

Surveying the Patient Costing Landscape in NSW Health – May 2020

The PATH Group and NSW Health collaborated to review the perceptions and use of patient-level costing information by the stakeholders of NSW Health. Patient costing data is a key dataset for the implementation of Activity Based Funding (ABF) in NSW. The purpose of this project was to identify and evaluate the value that costing information adds to strategic decision-making for Health Professionals across New South Wales (NSW).

Understanding the purpose, design, and use of costing data in Australian healthcare - April 2021

The Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) had engaged PATH Group to undertake a review of Australian healthcare costing. The project sought to identify the purpose, opportunities, and challenges associated with the collation, analysis, and use of patient costing information for funding models in the healthcare system. The project undertook a review of the Australian healthcare costing to identify the strategic role and purpose of funding models across states and territories. Public hospital costing is used in a variety of ways by stakeholders around Australia, but trends concerning how such data is applied remain sparse. This report provides an analysis of the uses, challenges, and future opportunities of patient-level costing data as identified from interviews with 100 stakeholders.

Professor Prabhu Sivabalan (CA) — our PATH Group Head

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise Learning) and Professor of Management Accounting

Prabhu is a Professor of Management Accounting at the UTS Business School and leads the Financial and Performance Transformation in Healthcare Group, a collaboration between NSW Health and the UTS Business School. He has published research in costing, budgeting and financial controls globally in leading academic and practitioner journals, and also externally advised or trained organisations regarding their costing/budgeting processes, including NSW Health, Citigroup, 7Media and CSR. He was also the external independent reviewer of version 4 of the Australia Hospital Patient Costing Standards. Prabhu has worked extensively in the healthcare costing space over the past 5 years, conducting research and capability building in the space of healthcare costing, its design and use and performance relation.

Prabhu is a first-class honours graduate from the UTS Business School, a chartered accountant and he holds a doctorate in budgeting, strategy and management control systems.

Find out more about Professor Prabhu Sivabalan 

Professor David Bedford 

Deputy Head, PATH Group and Professor of Management Accounting 

David is a professor in the Accounting Department of UTS Business School. David is an internationally recognised academic with notable contributions to the areas of performance measurement and management control. He has been part of projects conducted with CPA Australia, NSW Health, the Independent Health Pricing Authority, and the Cleaning Accountability Framework. David is also a highly rated lecturer, specialising in cost management, management control and using data analytics for managerial decision-making.

David is a graduate of the UTS Bachelor of Accounting scholarship program, completing his degree with first-class honours and the University Medal. David holds a PhD in management accounting and control. He has been a visiting scholar at Bocconi University, the London School of Economics, Aalto University and the Turku School of Economics.

Find out more about Dr David Bedford

Heran Darji

Research Associate and Project Coordinator, PATH Group

Heran is an experienced research analyst with the UTS Business School Accounting Department and a member of PATH. Heran has more than seven years of experience working with academia, Fortune 500-listed companies and start-ups in Healthcare, HealthTech and AgeTech. He has worked in research, analytics, stakeholder engagement and strategy roles. He co-founded a TravelTech start-up and works with start-ups in the HealthTech space.

Heran has designed and delivered sessions on foundational financial management to graduates at UTS. Heran is a Master in Business Administration with a major in Professional Accounting (UTS) and has a background in biotechnology engineering and bio-therapeutics.

Dr Rina Dhillon

Rina is a senior lecturer at UTS Business School in the Accounting Department. She is a qualified chartered accountant who has worked in industry for over 8 years and has prior experience as an auditor in Deloitte and management accountant in several SMEs. She possesses extensive expertise in management accounting concepts commonly applied in healthcare, including budgeting, performance management, and activity-based costing and teaches in this area in both undergraduate and postgraduate subjects at UTS. Her research focuses on accountability and performance measurement in the public sector. Rina is a first-class honours graduate from the University of Sydney and holds a PhD in management accounting from UNSW.

Dr Julia Heberle

Industry Expert and Member, Path Group

Julia started work in the public hospital system as a ward clerk over 30 years ago. In the intervening years, Julia has completed a Bachelor of Science with Distinction (Health Information Management), a Master of Public Health and has worked in numerous hospitals and across many roles. Julia has extensive experience and knowledge in patient costing having worked in numerous costing roles and across multiple NSW Health sites since 1998. As Manager, Clinical Cost Data Collection and Standards, NSW Health, between 2012 and 2017. During those years, Julia was an active participant on the National Hospital Cost Data Collection Advisory Committee and has a deep knowledge and understanding of the history of the NHCDC and the challenges associated with and opportunities available to the patient costing process

Julia is currently undertaking a PhD through UTS Business School. Her thesis is examining the quality and use of patient cost data and the impact on hospital performance. This research is motivated by her commitment to ensuring that the patient cost information provides the information necessary for system managers. Julia’s background is in health information management and she has a Masters in Public Health.

Bridget McGinty

Research Assistant

Bridget is a research assistant at the UTS Business School and assists with the management of PATH Group projects, research ethics and governance applications, coordination of specialist training courses and facilitating research activities.

Bridget has a Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Exercise and Sport Science and also works as an exercise scientist at a health clinic. She has previously completed a Performance Analysis Cadetship with Greater Western Sydney Giants, where her decision-making was informed by performance data in a sporting environment.

Dr Hannah Pham 

Lecturer, Accounting Department

Hannah is a lecturer at UTS Business School in the Accounting Discipline, which she joined in 2016.  Hannah coordinates and lectures in the subjects Cost Management and Analysis, one of the core Management Accounting subjects of the MPA degree.  Hannah's research has been published in A-star and A-ranked journals.

Find out more about Dr Hannah Pham

Rajan Thangavelu (CA)

Research Analyst, Accounting Department 

Rajan is a former Deloitte chartered accountant who has contributed to the PATH Group since 2018. Possessing a strong technical knowledge of management accounting concepts widely used in healthcare, such as budgeting, performance management and activity-based costing. Rajan is broadly responsible for structuring the delivery of content in our research-driven capability-building programs.

Dr Kelly K Wang

Kelly teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate management accounting subjects at UTS since 2018. Before that, she taught Strategic Management Accounting at postgraduate level at UNSW Sydney for four years. While completing her PhD in Accounting at UNSW Sydney, she held the position of Laboratory Manager at UNSW Business School. Prior to joining academia, she worked in various accounting and control roles in aviation, property management and travel industries, including her Internal Auditor role at Cathay Pacific Airways.

Her research focuses on management control systems, creativity and organisational innovation. Specifically, she tackles various innovation-related issues, such as heuristics-constrained decision-making, the pursuit of innovation ambidexterity, and the role of big data analytics in influencing new product development. Her research projects adopt experimental and survey methods to examine the issues from a behavioural perspective. Her research has been published in A* and A-ranked accounting journals.

Kelly is a member of the UTS Performance Analysis for Transformation in Healthcare Group. The PATH Group is committed to working collaboratively with partners in the healthcare industry to provide high-quality, evidence-based analysis and support, including projects to transform the costing and budgeting systems in NSW public hospitals.

The PATH Group and NSW Health are working together to enhance the skills of professionals employed by NSW Health towards a future-ready workforce. 

Our courses are customised and tailor-made for the participants to enhance their knowledge, understanding and skills towards greater financial sustainability by efficient use of data and storytelling. It draws on both financial and non-financial information to provide the actionable insights necessary to transform healthcare and secure the financial benefits to meet NSW Health’s strategic deliverables at the service delivery level.

Specialist Certificate in Developing Business Cases in Healthcare

• Western New South Wales Local Health District, Orange, NSW – November 2021

Specialist Certificate in Financial and Business Management in Healthcare

• Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA), Australia – September and December 2022
• Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Wagga Wagga, NSW – April 2022
• Western Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, NSW – February 2020
• NSW Health, Sydney, NSW – February and November 2018, February and October 2019
• Western New South Wales Local Health District, Dubbo, NSW – August 2019

Introduction to statistics and applications in healthcare

• Western New South Wales Local Health District, Dubbo, NSW – October 2020

 Financial and Business Management for Better Value Healthcare

• HealthShare, NSW Health, Sydney, NSW – August 2018

 Advancing Strategic Management Accounting and Business Partnering in NSW Health

• NSW Health, Sydney, NSW – September 2017

 Understanding, applying and improving healthcare costing

• NSW Health, Sydney, NSW – February 2017 

Industry

• Diabetes Australia
• HealthShare
• HETI (My Health Learning)
• Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority 
• Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD)
• NSW Health
• Western New South Wales Local Health District (WNSLHD)

International

• Professor Al Bhimani is a Professor of Management Accounting at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Professor Bhimani’s research interests include big data, financial controls in the digital economy and practical organisational innovations such as activity-based management, target costing, strategic management accounting and budgetary control systems. He has been widely published in prestigious accounting journals as well as co-authoring several books. Professor Bhimani is the founding director of LSE Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He obtained an MBA from Cornell University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
• Professor Christopher S. Chapman is recognised internationally as a leading healthcare costing advisor, researcher and thought leader. His current research focuses on the design of cost systems for healthcare providers. Professor Chapman’s work has profoundly influenced the development of the activity-based costing approach in UK healthcare. Previously, Professor Chapman was involved in researching strategies enabling accounting to influence operational decision-making in a variety of non-health-related industries.
• Professor Teemu Malmi is a professor of management accounting and head of the Healthcare Productivity Group at Aalto University, Finland. Professor Malmi has worked extensively with industry, not only in Finland but internationally and has produced research in the area of healthcare performance management. He is a leading management accounting professor globally, advocating for the importance of financial numbers and performance measures to better manage resources in a variety of settings, including healthcare.
• Professor Martin Messner of Management Control at the University of Innsbruck is widely respected as a leading management accounting and control thought leader. His primary interest is in the phenomena of management accounting and control. He has worked on the use of performance measures for strategy implementation, the impact of greater transparency in decision-making in organisations, and the relationship between financial and strategic objectives in new product development.