It Doesn’t Have to be EviDense

[摘要] Off hand, do you know how much a complete blood count costs at your hospital? Me neither. For the most part, it’s possible to obtain cost data for laboratory studies and imaging from various people at your institution, but who’s got the time to be doing this for every study we order while seeing patients? Here’s a simple solution from a group in Belgium. ### The study.This prospective examination used a control-intervention-washout design to determine whether providing a list of prices for common laboratory and radiologic tests could decrease costs at a tertiary care adult emergency department in Belgium. The intervention was a comprehensive pricing list of common laboratory and imaging studies. Each period (control, intervention, and washout) lasted 2 months and included the same 9 emergency medicine resident providers.### The key findings.The study included 3758 patients: 1093 in the control, 1329 in the intervention, and 1336 in the washout period. Examination costs decreased during the intervention period compared with the control period for laboratory studies (10.7%; P = .015) and radiology studies (33.7%; P < .001). When the washout period was compared with the control period, there remained a reduction in laboratory (5.0%; P = .014) and radiologic imaging (40.0% P < .001) costs. No significant differences between the intervention and washout periods were identified.#### Why do we care?It’s probably not necessary to explain the importance that costs have (and will continue to have) on our work in the hospital. Particularly in pediatric hospital medicine, where we have little control over our revenue, costs are paramount. And this intervention is practically free. Might even make a good resident quality improvement project for those of you in academic …

[学科分类] 儿科学

[关键词] Campylobacter;proljev;dob