Hopkins Bayview uses grant to cut diagnostic testing
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center has won a grant that officials plan to use to determine ways of reducing use of an expensive diagnostic test.
The grant is from the ABIM Foundation, which has partnered with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and aims to foster development of innovative decision making strategies when it comes to health care resources. Goals are improving quality and access to care, fairly distributing resources and managing conflicts of interest.
Hopkins will focus on reducing use of the common cardiac enzyme panel by lining up doctor orders with established guidelines for testing.
“This project aims to reduce a significant inefficiency in the practice of medicine - overutilization of diagnostic laboratory testing - with regard to the evaluation of patients with acute coronary syndrome,” Dr. Jeff Trost, assistant professor of cardiology and deputy director for clinical practice in the Bayview’s department of medicine, said in a statement.
“For a variety of reasons, providers sometimes order more lab tests than are needed to make or exclude the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome.”
Bayview officials plan to educate providers on the guidelines and create an electronic barrier to prevent overuse. They expect to save patients money, time and “needle sticks.”
Other grant that are coming under the Putting the Charter into Practice banner include the American College of Physicians, National Physicians Alliance, the Boston based non-profit Costs of Care and the University of Minnesota's Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
For more information about the ABIM Foundation and the grantees, go to www.abimfoundation.org.
