RESUMO
Background Healthcare budgets face constraints, and laboratories have developed strategies to adapt to the concomitant increase in workload. Some of the tests (7.4%) may be attributed to unnecessary repeat testing. Electronic gatekeeping has been implemented at selected laboratories in South Africa to limit unnecessary repeat testing. We performed a study of chemistry tests subjected to electronic gatekeeping to determine its effectiveness as a sustainable demand management tool. Methods A 22-month retrospective study of chemistry test requests at a Pretoria hospital was performed. Tests violating electronic gatekeeping rules were rejected upon registration before analysis, and cost-savings were estimated from electronic gatekeeping-held tests. The impact of electronic gatekeeping on the test requesting pattern of clinicians was derived from the percentage cost of electronic gatekeeping-held tests. Results The total savings generated from electronic gatekeeping test rejections amounted to $84,380. Greatest savings were generated from high-cost tests: glycated haemoglobin ($14,139), urea ($8661) and thyroid-stimulating hormone ($7514). The average number of electronic gatekeeping-held tests as a percentage of their total requested number over 22 months was 3.18%. Discussion The savings from electronic gatekeeping-held tests were not as dramatic as anticipated, but were modest and may have some impact in a cost-constrained setting. Electronic gatekeeping was concluded not to have a substantial effect on the clinician test requesting pattern, demonstrated by the largely unchanged monthly percentage of electronic gatekeeping-held tests. As a solitary demand management strategy, electronic gatekeeping does not appear to be as effective as anticipated or as demonstrated in other studies.
