Abstract
Background: Studies have found that unnecessary testing at the emergency department, King Faisal Hospital, was found to be expensive, inefficient, and requires additional technical resources.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the practice of laboratory tests in emergency room requested by emergency physicians at King Faisal Hospital, Taif, KSA.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 340 patient files that were checked for laboratory tests requested by the emergency doctors. The checklist included items about demographic data, presence of chronic diseases, laboratory tests requested, and whether these tests were normal, was used for data collection.
Results: CBC was requested for 97.9% of patients, LFT was requested for 82.9%, Urea/creatinine test was requested for 84.1% of the participants and electrolytes testing was requested for 88.5% of them. Vitamin D testing was requested for 42% of the participants and blood sugar testing was requested for 12.1% of them. The mean number of lab. tests done for studied patients was (6.82 +/- 1.86). Patients with chronic diseases and those with comorbidities had a significantly higher mean number of requested tests.
Conclusions: There was an overuse of laboratory tests at the ED which necessitates to choose the necessary analyses for each patient and to implement education and training of physicians on the ways to decrease unnecessary lab test ordering.