For many adults, a routine visit to a primary care physician might involve blood tests, a urinalysis, an electrocardiogram, maybe a bone density scan. Too often, however, these tests are inappropriate and they cost a bundle, according to a recent study, not only for the health care system but also for individuals, who are increasingly footing more of the bill for their care.
The study, led by physicians from the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, was published online in October in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The researchers examined the cost of common primary care practices that were identified as being overused earlier this year in a study by another group of physicians, known as the Good Stewardship Working Group.
The working group, for example, had noted that blood and other diagnostic tests were often ordered even for patients who had no related symptoms or risk factors and said they should be discontinued in those cases. Also included on its list were imaging studies such as CT scans or MRIs for low back pain and Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer in teenagers.
Among the frequently inappropriate pediatric practices were writing prescriptions for antibiotics for children with sore throats who didn’t have a strep infection; recommending cough medicines for children with upper respiratory infections and ordering imaging tests for the heads of kids who took a spill but didn’t exhibit red-flag symptoms such as dizziness or loss of consciousness.