Modeling Social Responsibility Costs in Academic Healthcare: An Integrated ABC And Strategic Management Accounting Framework

Abstract

Subsidized community outreach together with clinical training makes the cost management of academic healthcare institutions more complicated. This is because, in the Consulting Clinics of the College of Dentistry at the University of Thi-Qar, there is no separate costing system for community services. This deficiency unintentionally transforms the social responsibility of the establishment into hidden risk to its financial sustainability. Therefore, in this research, a descriptive analytical model is proposed to address this issue by integrating Activity-Based Costing (ABC) with Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) In the five major treatment categories, checking the model against 2025 data reveals significant accounting differences due to conventional volumetric cost allocation approaches. Basic services, such as X-rays (S4), are high-cost areas in the old metrics and low-cost areas in yours. More complicated interventions, such as dental procedures (S5), are the inverse. The actual cost of dental services was 52,397 dinars, over three times the conventional wisdom figure of 17,547 dinars. The model further showed a ‘true support gap’ that revealed the burden of uncompensated social responsibility on the university to be 33,679,730 Iraqi dinars. These results make it clear that the measurement of ‘non-pricing costs’ gives management a very important tool for digital governance, helping in the negotiation of funds and the long-term sustainability. With these results it is highly recommended that the model be adopted and automated time tracking systems be implemented to reduce distortions in costs.