title: Surgical vampires and rising health care expenditure: reducing the cost of daily phlebotomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether simply being made continually aware of the hospital costs of daily phlebotomy would reduce the amount of phlebotomy ordered for nonintensive care unit surgical patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary care hospital in an urban setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  All nonintensive care unit patients on 3 general surgical services.
  
  
  METHODS
  A weekly announcement to surgical house staff and attending physicians of the dollar amount charged to nonintensive care unit patients for laboratory services during the previous week.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dollars charged per patient per day for routine blood work.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline, the charges for daily phlebotomy were $147.73/patient/d. After 11 weeks of residents being made aware of the daily charges for phlebotomy, the charges dropped as low as $108.11/patient/d. This had a correlation coefficient of -0.76 and significance of P = .002. Over 11 weeks of intervention, the dollar amount saved was $54,967.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health care providers being made aware of the cost of phlebotomy can decrease the amount of these tests ordered and result in significant savings for the hospital.
authors.affiliation: DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33136, USA. bstuebing@gmail.com
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Stuebing
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Miner
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness; D001772:Blood Cell Count / Q000191:economics*; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000191:economics*; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D017722:Hospital Charges / Q000639:trends; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000639:trends*; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000191:economics; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D018962:Phlebotomy / Q000191:economics*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012237:Rhode Island; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000191:economics