A comparison of different methods of demand management on requesting activity in a teaching hospital intensive care unit.

Background: Laboratory services in the UK have witnessed an annual increase in requesting activity often with no associated increase in budget. This study evaluated the impact of different demand management strategies on biochemistry test requesting activity from a tertiary Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a UK teaching hospital.

Method: We conducted an observational longitudinal study in which biochemistry requesting activity from the ICU was gathered over five separate six-month periods between 2009 and 2013.