OBJECTIVES: Internal Cost Allocation (ICA), (e.g. Haematology – Transfusion medicine), becomes increasingly important, which is mainly caused by the G-DRG system. To guarantee optimal patient care, transperancy on resources, costs and benefits is necessary. Therefore, in a first step resource consumption in platelet production was assessed to calculate finally costs from the provider's perspective. METHODS: Prospective cost-study (full cost pricing/process cost finding). First, main processes of platelet production were identified. Secondly, an Excel model for standardized data entry and calculation was developed. Data was collected by multimeasurement-time analysis (laboratory processes three times, other processes ten times) and material consumption by trained staff. For cost calculations, the determined average from previous analysis was consulted. Unit cost data were collected from internal departments, e.g. materials logistics or personnel management. RESULTS: Platelet production consists of five processes: preparations before and after donation, medical examination, donation itself and laboratory tests to detect possible infections and increase blood safety. These require one secretary, one operator (registered nurse), four medical-technical-assistants and two doctors. The average of 62.44 minutes per doner could be prorated to the staff as follows: secretary 8.55%, doctor 7.7%, medical-technical-assistant 32.63%, and operator 51.12%. At the material consumption, the biggest part belonged to the laboratory reagents, which are needed for the standard-screening consisting of infection-serology, polymerase-chain-reaction, blood-type determination and the determination of the remaining leucocytes. Cost evaluation is still ongoing.CONCLUSION: Platelet production is a time- and resource-binding process. In the context of ICA, transparency on costs is important for budget negotiations, particularly when costs and benefits of the introduction of innovations in transfusion medicine shall be evaluated. It can be assumed that the relevance of platelet transfusions due to new therapy approaches is growing and in consequence, product differentiation and economic aspects are getting more important for resource allocation in German hospitals.