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Is there duplication of diagnostic test results?

Conventional wisdom has it that there is considerable duplication of diagnostic tests prior to hospitalization and during the first week following admission to hospital. This study, funded by the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District, investigates the facts. The idea that diagnostic services in a community area are unnecessarily duplicated when patients are admitted to hospital has long been proclaimed by politicians, hospital officials and even some members of the medical profes¬ sion. Yet, there has been no major control study confirming this thought. A recent recommendation in the November 1973 Inter-Laboratory Co¬ operation Committee report to the pro¬ fessional advisory committee of the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District suggested that a study should be conducted to investigate this subject and, if warranted, recommendations should be made. On reviewing information available at the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District, which showed that a high proportion of people in the area were admitted to their local hospital if hospitalization were required, North Vancouver, with Lion's Gate Hospital as a base hospital, was selected as the study area. The hospital charts of 1189 patients hospitalized during 1972 and the first half of 1973 were examined for all diagnostic work performed in the first week of hospitalization and then com¬ pared with diagnostic work done on the