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Study: Patients sent home before tests are in

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, July 22, 2005

Hospital patients are often sent home before the results of all their tests are in, and some lab reports that indicate need for new or different treatments fall through the cracks, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study looked at 2,644 consecutive patients who were discharged from two hospitals in 2004.

Researchers said that doctors often did not know about the results or even that a test had been ordered, and that hospitals needed to do a better job following up on discharged patients, the New York Times reported July 19.

About 40% of the time, tests results were still pending when the patients were sent home, the study said.

A review of those results and a survey of the doctors who had cared for the patients suggested that about 9% of the time, they might have required further medical action, the Times reported.

The results required urgent attention in 15 cases, the doctors said. Doctors and nurses treating the patients were unaware of half of those infections.

The team of researchers was led by Christopher L. Roy, MD of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Part of the problem, Roy said, may be that hospitals are ordering too many tests.

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