TDABC tracks the true cost of care over what scope?

• A. The full cycle of a patient's journey
• B. The hospital's monthly expenses
• C. A specific laboratory test
• D. The whole hospital's annual budget

Answer: (A)

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing tracks the true cost of care by following the actual patient journey and assigning costs to each step based on the time resources take. This means looking at the entire care episode from start to finish—every activity a patient goes through, across departments and settings—and calculating costs using the time required for staff, equipment, and facilities. By capturing how long each part of the process takes and the cost rate of the resources involved, TDABC reveals the true, total cost of delivering that patient’s care. This broad scope helps identify where time and resource use drive expense, pinpoint bottlenecks or inefficiencies, and support improvements across the whole care pathway rather than focusing on isolated components like a single lab test or a department’s monthly expenses.