Guideline for UTIs cuts office visits, lab and drug costs.
It's not just the big-ticket procedures that reap big savings for providers when it comes to developing clinical guidelines. Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound is saving about $750,000 each year thanks to a clinical guideline for uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women. Here's the step-by-step details, plus Group Health's algorithm and detailed plans for implementation.
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017046:Cost Savings; D016527:Drug Costs; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics / Q000652:urine*; D014861:Washington