Turkish Journal of Clinics and Laboratory

Öz

Aim: To analyse usage status of laboratory tests in public hospitals in Turkey by various indicators, and to draw attention to their effect on hospital costs.
Material and Methods: Usage of laboratory tests in public hospitals between 2015-2019, test request ratios, laboratory expenses and medical service data are obtained from the Ministry of Health. Data, which are obtained from various databases of the Ministry of Health, are analysed by being synthesised.
Results: The ratio of laboratory expenses, which increased to 2.7 billion TRY in 2019, is at the level of 5.67% in total costs of public hospitals. As we consider top 25 tests in terms of volume and revenue, we observe that tests are similar in general, and that differences source from high levels of reimbursement rates. We detected that test request ratio and expense per test are high in branch training and research hospitals. The fact that test request ratio is high in provinces where the number of old population and median age is high is in the character of a proof that chronic disease follow-up is a factor that increases the number of test requests. Inappropriate use of laboratory testing (such as vitamin D) create a critical financial burden on hospital costs.
Conclusion: Rational use of laboratory projects must be conducted effectively in order to prevent overuse or unnecessary test requests, which constitute one of the reasons of the continuous increase observed in laboratory expenses in Turkey. Improving the suitability of laboratory tests would not only provide cost effectiveness, but would also provide even more clinical benefits and would make contribution to patient safety.