Journal article
Patterns in computed tomography utilization among emergency physicians in an urban, academic emergency department
Emergency radiology, Vol.21(6), pp.577-581
12/2014
DOI: 10.1007/s10140-014-1237-x
PMID: 24838813
Abstract
We sought to determine if CT utilization rates varied by characteristics of the physician. A chart review was performed at an urban academic emergency department (ED) to identify all the CT scans ordered and patients seen for subjects 21 years of age and older by physicians between January 2001 and December 2008. “Years of experience” was defined as years of practice after residency. Various experience cutoffs were determined a priori. Physicians were labeled “academic” if they had reduced clinical hours for academic duties and “clinical” if they were physicians without “protected time.” We categorized physicians as “high users” (top quartiles) and “low users” (bottom quartiles), and compared utilization rates from 2001 to 2003 to utilization rates from 2005 to 2007. There were 280 physician-years of practice, with an average experience of 6.1 years. When comparing groups of physicians with more or less than 3, 5, 10, and 15 years of experience, there were no statistically significant differences between the number of CT scans per 1,000 visits (p = 0.85; p = 0.21; p = 0.57; p = 0.08, respectively). Comparison between clinical and academic physicians yielded no differences (clinical = 98.4, academic = 104.2, p = 0.10). Low users ordered 78 CT scans per 1,000 patient visits (95 % CI 76.6–78.5), as compared to the high users that ordered 135 CT scans per 1,000 patient visits (95 % CI 131.8–139.0). We found that all of physicians stayed within their quartiles except one. While there was substantial variation among CT utilization rates by physicians at this urban emergency department, our data shows no differences between physicians with more or less clinical experience and no change in individual utilization patterns during the study period.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Patterns in computed tomography utilization among emergency physicians in an urban, academic emergency department
- Creators
- Jonathan Kirschner - Department of Emergency Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis IN USAKaushal Shah - Department of Emergency Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York NY USADaniel Runde - Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA Box 21 1000 W Carson St. Torrance CA 90509-2910 USADavid Newman - Department of Emergency Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York NY USABrandon Godbout - Department of Emergency Medicine Lenox Hill Hospital New York NY USADan Wiener - Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Mt. Sinai School of Medicine New York NY USAJarone Lee - Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery and Surgical Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston MA USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Emergency radiology, Vol.21(6), pp.577-581
- Publisher
- Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Berlin/Heidelberg
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10140-014-1237-x
- PMID
- 24838813
- ISSN
- 1070-3004
- eISSN
- 1438-1435
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2014
- Academic Unit
- Emergency Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984025398202771
Metrics
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