Background: Unnecessary inpatient laboratory testing is common and negatively impacts patients by causing discomfort and iatrogenic anemia. Such testing also burdens a busy phlebotomy team, particularly when patients decline labs due to recency of previous checks. Audit and feedback interventions are known to reduce low value practices in medical residents, but no published study has [...]

Background: Compared to ten other high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the US spent nearly twice as much on healthcare. Yet, compared to these countries, the US has the lowest life expectancy. This disparity will worsen as the US’s national healthcare expenditures rise from $4.1 trillion in 2020 to a [...]

Background: Avoiding repeated complete blood count (CBC) tests in the face of clinical and lab stability is a focus of the Choosing Wisely initiatives endorsed by the Society of Hospital Medicine. The goal of this study was to identify situations in which routine CBC testing can be avoided. Methods: This was a retrospective study of [...]

Case Presentation: A 77-year-old man with a history of coronary artery disease and prior coronary artery bypass surgery presented with a five-day history of fever and shortness of breath. On examination, he had a temperature of 101.8°F, heart rate of 131 bpm, respiratory rate of 44, and oxygen saturation of 96% on room air. Laboratory [...]