Operational impact of decreased turnaround times for screening tests in a tertiary academic medical center.

Objective: Assess turnaround time (TAT) and cost-benefit of on-site screening and its impact on length of stay (LOS) and costs compared to reference laboratories.

Design: Before-and-after retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Large-tertiary medical center.

Methods: We validated an on-site polymerase chain reaction-based testing platform for and retrospectively reviewed hospitalized adults who screened negative before and after platform implementation. We constructed multivariable models to assess the association of screening negative with hospital LOS/cost in the pre and postimplementation periods. We adjusted for confounders such as demographics and indwelling device use, and compared TATs for all samples tested.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the testing platform were 100% and 98.11%, respectively, compared to send-out testing. The clinical cohort included 287 adults in the pre and 1,266 postimplementation period. The TAT was reduced by more than 2 days (3 (interquartile range (IQR): 2.0, 7.0) vs 0.42 (IQR: 0.24, 0.81), < 0.001). Median LOS was significantly lower in the postimplementation period; however, this was no longer evident after adjustment. In relation to total cost, the time period had an effect of $6,965 (95% CI: -$481, $14,412); = 0.067) on reducing the cost. The median adjusted total cost per patient was $7,045 (IQR: $3,805, $13,924) less in the post vs the preimplementation period.

Conclusions: Our assessment did not find a statistically significant change in LOS, nevertheless, on-site testing was not cost-prohibitive for the institution. The value of on-site testing may be supported if an institutional reduction strategy emphasizes faster TATs.