Utilization and cost analysis of bedside capillary glucose testing in a large teaching hospital: implications for managing point of care testing.

Purpose: To study the use and cost of bedside capillary glucose testing in a large teaching hospital.

Patients And Methods: In a prospective study of 40 inpatient units and 10 outpatient units at Massachusetts General Hospital, records were maintained by each unit of the date, time, operator, and results of patient and quality control tests. Cost analysis was performed using data from time studies, test tallies in logbooks, and hospital administration records.

Implementation of capillary blood glucose monitoring in a teaching hospital and determination of program requirements to maintain quality testing.

Purpose: To study the implementation of bedside capillary glucose monitoring using a hospital-wide quality control (QC) program.

Methods: A prospective study of QC performance in 7 outpatient and 39 inpatient treatment units was performed in a large teaching hospital over a 2-year period. Approximately 800 nurses were trained to perform bedside capillary glucose monitoring (Accu-Chek II, Boehringer-Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN).

Medicine as a career: choices and consequences.

Medicine has traditionally been regarded as a rewarding career both financially and socially. How true, however, is that tradition in today's world of rising costs and decreasing revenues? The educational debt of the physician-in-training is steadily increasing, and currently does not affect specialty choice. As the cost of medical education continues to rise, the applicant pool begins to shrink, thereby possibly affecting the quality of future physicians.