An Analysis of Laboratory Utilization in a Family Practice Unit

Abstract

<p>This thesis is a report of the evaluation of laboratory utilization by a Family Practice Clinic. The evaluation covered the month of October, 1975. All encounter forms generated by patient visits in October were included in the study sample.</p> <p>The encounter form records whether a patient is new to the clinic, the nature of his visit, whether the visit is the first for a given problem or a follow-up visit, the diagnosis made at the visit, and any laboratory procedure ordered. These variables were combined in an instrument that determined the motive a physician might have for ordering a laboratory investigation.</p> <p>Three motives for ordering a laboratory procedure were defined, ie. casefinding, monitoring or diagnostic use. Tests requested were classified into the three categories. The classification instrument was validated and shown to be reliable. The data used from the encounter was shown to be only 50% reliable with unrecorded information being the major factor contributing to the unreliability of the data.</p> <p>The study showed that requests for laboratory procedure can be classified by the three motives for requesting them, ie. diagnosing, casefinding or monitoring. Sixty-one percent of the tests were used for diagnosis, 11% for casefinding and 28% for monitoring. Age, sex, nature of visit and the diagnosis of the patient were shown to be important variables in explaining the physician's use of the laboratory.</p> <p>The results indicate that the classification logic is an operational tool but in this study its validity has not been completely assured.</p>