Longitudinal trends in laboratory test utilization at a large tertiary care university hospital in Sweden

Figures & data

Table I. Investigated variables and their inflation-adjusted values presented in 2008 euros.

	2002	2008
Generated test results^a	3,760,508	6,402,617
Analyses offered	309	663
Send-out tests ordered	1,005	3,160
Mean price charged per test^b	€34.9	€37.5
Total laboratory expenditures	€10.4 million	€12.5 million
Total testing expense^c	€2.8	€2.0
Admissions	53,504	58,001
Hospital beds	1,200	1,100
Out-patient visits with a physician	291,000	332,243
Additional outpatient visits	329,000	419,213
Total hospital expenditures	€513 million	€629 million

^aIncluding non-chargeable test results such as calculations and missing or ruined.

^bAccording to price-list, not volume-adjusted.

^cTotal expense/total number of generated test results.

Figure 1. The total number of performed tests per year during the study period.

Table II. The percentage of the total number of tests represented by the 10, 20, and 30 most commonly ordered tests.

Year	Total number of ordered tests	10 most commonly ordered tests	20 most commonly ordered tests	30 most commonly ordered tests
2002	3,760,508	40.4%	59.5%	67.6%
2003	3,983,149	47.7%	69.7%	78.7%
2004	4,218,082	47.6%	69.1%	77.6%
2005	4,614,524	48.8%	69.3%	77.1%
2006	5,100,550	48.0%	67.4%	75.8%
2007	5,766,947	47.9%	66.7%	76.2%
2008	6,402,617	47.8%	66.4%	75.7%
Mean	4,835,197	46.9%	66.9%	75.5%