Background: It is often assumed resident physicians at academic medical centers order more tests for inpatients due to different aspects of the clinical learning environment.  Despite this prevailing notion, there is very little evidence to support this claim. We sought to quantify differences in ordering practices between teaching hospitals and non-teaching hospitals for two common [...]

Background: It is often assumed resident physicians at academic medical centers order more tests for inpatients due to different aspects of the clinical learning environment.  Despite this prevailing notion, there is very little evidence to support this claim. We sought to quantify differences in ordering practices between teaching hospitals and non-teaching hospitals for two common [...]

Background: Unnecessary diagnostic testing contributes to the escalating cost of health care in the US and can cause harm to patients. Daily blood work has become a routine part of care for hospitalized adults though only a fraction of tests change diagnosis or management decisions. At academic medical centers, residents are responsible for ordering most [...]