Background: Overuse of daily labs (DL), especially CBC and BMPs in hospitalized patients leads to increased costs and utilization of resources, iatrogenic anemia, and patient discomfort. Prior quality improvement (QI) efforts in hospital medicine have worked to reduce excessive lab utilization, but few have focused on labs ordered on the day of discharge (LOD) . […]

Background: US healthcare costs are exorbitant and excessive lab utilization contributes significantly1. Daily labs (DLs) are often over-ordered for inpatients.2 This leads to increased costs, iatrogenic anemia, patient discomfort and limits phlebotomy resources 3. The Choosing Wisely® campaign recommends against checking DL in patients who have clinical and lab stability5. Previous quality improvement initiatives have […]

Case Presentation: 62-year-old male with a PMH notable for recurrent epistaxis, bleeding post-dental procedures & IDA since childhood on & off oral iron supplementation presented to the hospital with a traumatic head injury resulting in a SAH/SDH. Initial laboratory work found normocytic anemia & severe thrombocytopenia (TCP) – 25 X 10E+09/L . CT abdomen & […]

Case Presentation: A 69-year-old female presented to the Emergency Department with progressive weakness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and confusion for several weeks following an eye surgery the month prior, with symptoms acutely worsening over the last week. On the day of admission, she was found disoriented and clinging to a doorway at home, unable […]