Time-driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) in a department of radiology of a hospital from the South of Brazil

Abstract

Objective: Measuring the cost of services of the department of radiology of a private hospital in the South of Brazil and to evaluate the financial performance of the sector when compared to the transfer of the chart to hospitals of the Unified Health System (SUS). Methods: A case study based on the TDABC methodology was applied. After the definition of the tests of higher incidence, the process of performing chest x-ray examinations, total abdomen ultrasound, cranial tomography, chest tomography, transvaginal pelvic ultrasound, urinary tract ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging were analyzed. The time of the activities to perform each exam, information of the costs of the department, as well as the definitions of the capacities of the services were collected to calculate the cost of the exams according to the activities and time. Results: It can be inferred that in the comparison with the values of pass-through of the SUS, all of the examinations analyzed presented higher costs than the pass-through. In addition, it was observed that about 80% of the costs are related to the fixed cost of the structure of the radiology department and 12% to the medical professional. Conclusion: TDABC was an opportune method for costing assessment in a department of hospital radiology. Through the presented results, improvements can be proposed in order to reduce costs for a higher performance of the service.