Transcript - Reducing Inappropriate Arterial Blood Gas Testing in a 58-Bed Quaternary Intensive Care Unit

Transcript of Reducing Inappropriate Arterial Blood Gas Testing in a 58-Bed Quaternary Intensive Care Unit

Dr Oliver Walsh: I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and pay my respects to elders past and present.

Performing unnecessary tests is a huge problem in medicine. We were doing over 65,000 blood gas tests in our intensive care unit each year, many of them without a strong indication.

This was costing over $2 million annually and potentially harming our patients by contributing to anemia and the need for blood transfusion.

Through staff education and the implementation of a clinical guideline, we were able to reduce our testing by about one third.

This 20,000 fewer tests each year equates to almost $0.8 million dollars saved and 100 litres less of our patients’ precious blood being taken from them.

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