Patient, hospital and environmental costs of unnecessary bloodwork: capturing the triple bottom line of inappropriate care in general surgery patients

Open access article looking at the patient, hospital and environmental cost of unnecessary bloodwork in general surgery inpatients at Vancouver General Hospital. 

The article estimates the carbon footprint of various laboratory blood tests as well as the total carbon footprint of unnecessary blood work undertaken in a sample of general surgery inpatients.

Results

• 76% (63/83) of evaluated patients underwent unnecessary bloodwork resulting in a mean of 1.84 phlebotomies, 4.4 blood vials, 16.5 tests and 18 mL of blood loss per patient.
• The hospital and environmental cost of these unnecessary activities was $C5235 and 61 kg CO2e (974 g CO2e per person), respectively.
• The carbon footprint of a common set of investigations (complete blood count, differential, creatinine, urea, sodium, potassium) was 332 g CO2e. Adding a liver panel (liver enzymes, bilirubin, albumin, international normalised ratio/partial thromboplastin time) resulted in an additional 462 g CO2e.

Spoyalo K, Lalande A, Rizan C, et al Patient, hospital and environmental costs of unnecessary bloodwork: capturing the triple bottom line of inappropriate care in general surgery patients BMJ Open Quality 2023;12:e002316.