American journal of clinical pathology
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Am. J. Clin. Pathol. · Mar 2015
Impact of an educational intervention on the frequency of daily blood test orders for hospitalized patients.
During hospitalizations, blood is drawn for diagnostic laboratory tests to help guide patient care. Often, blood tests continue to be ordered even in the face of clinical and laboratory stability. Blood draws are painful and costly, and they may be associated with anemia. We hypothesized that provider education could reduce the frequency of daily blood tests ordered for hospitalized patients. ⋯ Provider education and reminders can reduce the frequency of daily blood tests ordered by providers for hospitalized patients. This can decrease health care costs and may reduce the risk of complications such as anemia.
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Am. J. Clin. Pathol. · Mar 2015
Effectiveness of multiple initiatives to reduce blood component wastage.
Blood component waste is an important issue at all hospitals. As an initiative of the patient blood management program at a regional health care system, the causes and extent of blood product wastage were identified, and targeted interventions to effect a reduction were implemented. ⋯ Relatively inexpensive interventions can have a prompt and dramatic impact on reducing blood wastage with regard to both cost and resource savings.
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Am. J. Clin. Pathol. · Mar 2015
Left-sided early-onset vs late-onset colorectal carcinoma: histologic, clinical, and molecular differences.
Carcinomas of the left colon represent a neoplasm of older patients (late onset), but epidemiologic evidence has been showing an increasing incidence in patients 50 years or younger (early onset). In this study, we investigate pathologic and molecular features of early- and late-onset carcinoma of the left colon. ⋯ Our results suggest that left-sided CRCs may present differential patterns of aberrant DNA methylation when they are separated by age.