title: Impact of the cardiac troponin testing algorithm on excessive and inappropriate troponin test requests.
abstract: Cardiac troponin (cTn) is a key biomarker for the assessment of myocardial injury, but overutilization of this test has increased workload and costs. We developed and implemented an algorithm to eliminate excessive utilization. Significant reduction was observed after the implementation of the algorithm in total cTnI requests (29.9%; P = .007), requests from outpatient clinics (70.7%; P = .003), and other wards (42.8%; P = .003). Stat requests, the number of third requests, and more than 3 requests per patient were reduced significantly by 42.8% (P = .004), 35.8% (P = .003), and 49.4% (P = .008), respectively. The test and labor costs each were reduced by 29.9% (P = .007 for each). There was no significant change in cTnI orders from emergency and critical care departments. The cTnI testing algorithm reduced unnecessary orders for cTnI tests with no reduction in meeting patients'critical needs. Reduction in unnecessary and inappropriate requests reduces labor and test costs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatoon, Canada.
authors.forename: Qing H
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Shiming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Booth
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bertsch
authors.forename: Mabood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qureshi
authors.forename: Jawahar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalra
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014336:Troponin / Q000097:blood; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014600:Utilization Review
chemical_list: D014336:Troponin