Background: The Society of Hospital Medicine and the ABIM Foundation‘s Choosing Wisely Campaign have made tackling overutilization of routine labs part of their mission.  Based on the literature, 30-50% of routine labs ordered for hospitalized patients every morning may be unnecessary.  Aside from pain, discomfort and sleep disturbance, these daily labs predispose patients to iatrogenic [...]

Background: Choosing Wisely recommends against testing for amylase in the diagnosis and management of acute pancreatitis; however, national CMS data shows over $19 million in charges for amylase laboratory testing per year. Our hospital spent over $341,000 on roughly 38,000 amylase orders in the past year. Purpose: We developed a quality improvement project to reduce [...]

Background: As health systems focus on providing high–value, cost–conscious care, efforts to optimize laboratory testing are increasing.  In order to improve safe and effective utilization of the laboratory, it is informative to understand the prevalence of overuse and its contributing factors. Methods: The Value Improves Quality (VIQ) curriculum was implemented at our institution in 2014 [...]