ArticleSouthern medical journal2016
House Officer-Driven Reduction in Laboratory Utilization.
Article in Southern medical journal, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions to reduce repetitive ordering of low-value inpatient laboratory tests: a systematic review.BMJ open quality · 2023Pooled it
- Discovery of biophysical rate laws from the electronic health record enables real-time liver injury estimation from transaminase dynamics.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- Reducing Test Utilization in Hospital Settings: A Narrative Review.Annals of laboratory medicine · 2018Review
- An educational intervention to increase awareness reduces unnecessary laboratory testing in an internal medicine resident-run clinic.Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo determine whether sharing laboratory charge and personal utilization information with physicians can reduce laboratory test orders and expenditures, thereby decreasing the overutilization of laboratory testing.
methodsThis was a prospective study. By querying our electronic medical records, we calculated the median laboratory charges per patient/per day (PP/PD) and median laboratory tests ordered PP/PD for the resident general internal medicine and hospitalist services. For 10 weeks, we shared this team-based information with physicians with weekly updates. We calculated total laboratory charges for the 10 most common discharge diagnoses to capture laboratory charges for entire episodes of care.
resultsDuring the intervention, the mean number of laboratory tests ordered PP/PD by resident service decreased from 5.56 to 5.17 (-0.389, P <0.001); the mean charge PP/PD decreased from $488 to $461 (-$27, P < 0.001). The hospitalist service decreased the number of laboratory tests ordered PP/PD from 3.54 to 3.36 (-0.18, P = 0.77) and the mean charge PP/PD decreased from $331 to $301 (-$30, P = 0.96). The statistically significant decline in laboratory charges persisted after controlling for the 10 most common discharge diagnoses. Compared with the 3-month period before the study began, physicians in the 10-week intervention period ordered 1464 fewer laboratory tests, resulting in a $188,000 reduction in charges and a 3% to 4% reduction in utilization.
conclusionsInforming physicians of the charges for laboratory tests and their personal utilization patterns can reduce the number of laboratory tests ordered and laboratory expenditures, especially for physicians in training.
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Registered trials
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