An interventional study of Multimodal Intervention: Education and Multimodal Intervention: Audit and Feedback in Utilization, Health Care, sponsored by University of Calgary. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-27.
Sponsored by University of Calgary · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
Laboratory test overuse occurs when tests are ordered repetitively, without due consideration of impact on clinical status. Repetitive inpatient lab testing often provides limited value for patient outcomes while increasing healthcare costs, patient discomfort, and unnecessary transfusions and prolonging hospitalizations. The research study aims to reduce laboratory test overuse in hospitals through implementation of a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, and multi-faceted intervention bundle that includes audit and feedback reports, clinician education, clinical decision support tool, and patient infographics across 14 hospitals in Alberta.
Background: Laboratory and Pathology testing contributes to rising health care expenditure. A relatively large percentage (up to 42%) of laboratory testing can be considered wasteful. Redundant testing alone has been estimated to waste up to 5 billion dollars annually in the United States of America. Laboratory over-utilization leads to false positives that promotes further inappropriate testing and procedures, interruption of normal sleep pattern of inpatients, as well as iatrogenic anemia and pain. A Canadian study showed significant hemoglobin reductions as a result of phlebotomy. Studies support the safe reduction of repetitive laboratory testing without negative effects on adverse events, readmission rates, critical care utilization, or mortality.
The aim of this research study is the following:
This intervention bundle will be implemented across all the adult hospital sites in Alberta starting January 2023 and evaluated until October 2024.
93 studies on the registry are indexed under Patient Acceptance of Health Care; 30 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 251,817 is above the median of 238 across 74 interventional studies indexed under Patient Acceptance of Health Care.
Browse Patient Acceptance of Health Care studies →University of Calgary is the lead sponsor of 686 studies on the registry; 189 are open to participants now.
Of its 10 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 2 (20%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
This is the time period of the study where hospital clusters are not receiving the intervention
This is the time period of the study where hospital clusters are receiving the multimodal intervention.
Other: Multimodal Intervention: Education · Other: Multimodal Intervention: Audit and Feedback · Other: Multimodal Intervention: Patient Engagement · Other: Multimodal Intervention: System Changes
The multimodal intervention bundle consists of education, audit and feedback, patient engagement, and system changes.
The multimodal intervention bundle consists of education, audit and feedback, patient engagement, and system changes.
The multimodal intervention bundle consists of education, audit and feedback, patient engagement, and system changes.
The multimodal intervention bundle consists of education, audit and feedback, patient engagement, and system changes.
Number of routine laboratory tests ordered per patient-day in the intervention versus control periods
Number of the six target laboratory tests (complete blood count, electrolytes, creatinine, urea, international normalized ratio and partial thromboplastin time) ordered per patient-day
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Costs associated with routine and all common laboratory test ordered
Costs of test and associated costs with and without intervention
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Proportion of hospital patient lab-free days
Number of hospital patient-days not associated with laboratory blood draws
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Proportion of critically abnormal test results
As defined by lab standards, we will track the proportion of critically abnormal test results
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Length of stay
Patient length of stay on the unit
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Transfer to Intensive Care Unit
Transfer rate to Intensive Care Unit
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
In-patient and 30-day patient mortality over study period
Mortality rate in hospital and at 30-days post discharge
Time frame: 30 days post discharge
30-day post discharge readmission rate
Hospital re-admission within 30 days post discharge
Time frame: 30 days post discharge
Number of all common laboratory tests
Number of all common laboratory tests (tests that contribute to \>80% of hospital laboratory test utilization during study period) per patient-day.
Time frame: 1 year 9 months
Plan to share: No — Study data and results will be available for sharing with other researchers who follow the ethical and institutional protocols required by hospitals and health systems involved to obtain the same data
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in May 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Calgary