The technological progress in the field of health has been triggering rises of medical assistance costs, worrying the world-wide population, private agents and the responsible ones for public policies. This search presents an analysis of technological evolution impact - here, bounded to the medical equipments incorporation - on thehospital treatment costs. In order to accomplish the objective, the medical care for urinary lithiasis - lithotripsyand surgery - had been chosen due to the record of meaningful technological advances. The case study wascarried through at the Lithotripsy Service and Hospital Universitário de Brasília (HUB) Surgical Center from 2001to 2003. The costs and incomes - differential items inherent to options for urinary calculosis treatment - were compared in four proposals. As a means to prove the results robustness the variable uncertainty wasincorporated through simulations at the Crystal Ball system, achieving 50.000 iterations. The main impacts from technological progress on the medical care for urinary lithiasis costs are: increase of the installed capacity, generation of expense with obsolescence and increase of revenues.
Hospital Costs; Technological Progress; Capacity; Depreciation
