Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Electronic Records / 20.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rohit Bishnoi, M.D. Division of Hematology and Oncology Department of Medicine University of Florida Gainesville, FL MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: National Healthcare expenditure was $3.6 trillion in 2018 and 17.7% of Gross Domestic Product. Redundant laboratory testing is one part of this problem that is more pronounced in hospitalized patients as they are often seen by multiple physicians from the time of admission till discharge. This added burden on the US health care system leads to increased costs, decreased patient satisfaction, and unnecessary phlebotomy. It also leads to iatrogenic anemia over time and unnecessary transfusions. The Choosing Wisely initiative recommendation from the Society of Hospital Medicine, Society for the Advancement of Blood Management, and the Critical Care Societies Collaborative have recommended avoiding repetitive labs. As one of the physicians in the division of hospital medicine at the University of Florida (UF) Health Shands hospital, we encountered this problem frequently where a patient will get multiple HbA1c or lipid profiles or iron studies during the same hospital stay without any clear clinical indication. Most often these tests were ordered by different physicians seeing the same patient and not realizing that either the test has already been ordered or sometimes it is related to practice pattern of physicians. We often heard complaints about this from our nursing and laboratory staff and, most importantly by patients themselves. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA / 28.07.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: blood-tests-lab-testsRenuka S Bindraban, MD and Prabath W. B. Nanayakkara, MD, PhD Section of Acute Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute Amsterdam UMC Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherland  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: It is well known that a significant portion of healthcare activities is considered of low-value. Eliminating such low-value care is often targeted in efforts to both contain rapidly increasing healthcare costs as well as maintain high-quality care. In this context, our study focused on reducing unnecessary laboratory testing. In 2008, our study group performed a multifaceted intervention aimed at reducing unnecessary diagnostic testing at the Internal Medicine department of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, location Vrije Universiteit (VU). In the ‘Reduction of Unnecessary Diagnostics Through Attitude Change of the Caregivers’, we implemented this successful intervention in the Internal Medicine departments of four large teaching hospitals in the Netherlands. The intervention included creating awareness through education and feedback, intensified supervision of residents, and changes in order entry systems. (more…)