Strategies to reduce inappropriate laboratory blood test orders in intensive care are effective and safe: a before-and-after quality improvement study.

Abstract:

:Unnecessary pathology tests performed in intensive care units (ICU) might lead to increased costs of care and potential patient harm due to unnecessary phlebotomy. We hypothesised that a multimodal intervention program could result in a safe and effective reduction in the pathology tests ordered in our ICU. We conducted a single-centre pre- and post-study using multimodal interventions to address commonly ordered routine tests. The study was performed during the same six month period (August to February) over three years: 2012 to 2013 (pre-intervention), 2013 to 2014 (intervention) and 2014 to 2015 (post-intervention). Interventions consisted of staff education, designing new pathology forms, consultant-led pathology test ordering and intensive monitoring for a six-month period. The results of the study showed that there was a net savings of over A$213,000 in the intervention period and A$175,000 in the post-intervention period compared to the pre-intervention period. There was a 28% reduction in the tests performed in the intervention period (P <0.0001 compared to pre-intervention period) and 26% in the post-intervention period (P <0.0001 compared to pre-intervention period). There were no ICU or hospital mortality differences between the groups. There were no significant haemoglobin differences between the groups. A multimodal intervention safely reduced pathology test ordering in the ICU, resulting in substantial cost savings.

journal_name

Anaesth Intensive Care

authors

Dhanani JA,Barnett AG,Lipman J,Reade MC

doi

10.1177/0310057X1804600309

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2018-05-01 00:00:00

pages

313-320

issue

3

eissn

0310-057X

issn

1448-0271

pii

20170585

journal_volume

46

pub_type

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