Annals of clinical biochemistry
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Ann. Clin. Biochem. · Jan 2015
Comparative StudyA comparison of different methods of demand management on requesting activity in a teaching hospital intensive care unit.
Laboratory services in the UK have witnessed an annual increase in requesting activity often with no associated increase in budget. This study evaluated the impact of different demand management strategies on biochemistry test requesting activity from a tertiary Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a UK teaching hospital. ⋯ Implementation of MRIs reduced biochemistry test requesting activity on the ICU. Introduction of an agreed test schedule and removal of the MRIs, however, produced a further reduction in ICU requesting activity. Variation in ICU workload does not account for all the observed changes.