Reducing Point-of-care Blood Gas Testing in the Intensive Care Unit through Diagnostic Stewardship: A Value Improvement Project.

Introduction: Overutilization of point-of-care (POC) testing may reduce the overall value of care due to high-cost cartridges, need for staff training, and quality assurance requirements.

Methods: The Diagnostic Stewardship group at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center assembled a multidisciplinary team to reduce the use of POC blood gas testing by 20% in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Key drivers of test overutilization included poor knowledge of cost, concern with testing turnaround time, and a lack of a standard definition of when a POC test was appropriate.