Canadian family physician knowledge and attitudes toward laboratory utilization management

• Alberta family physicians are by far the largest users of laboratory testing.
• 162 Alberta family physicians were surveyed regarding laboratory utilization topics.
• The vast majority of respondents consider this topic important or very important.
• Respondents placed the most responsibility for addressing issues on themselves.
• Acceptability of common improvement strategies varied widely.

ObjectivesMitigation of unnecessary and redundant laboratory testing is an important quality assurance priority for laboratories and represents an opportunity for cost savings in the health care system. Family physicians represent the largest utilizers of laboratory testing by a large margin. Engagement of family physicians is therefore key to any laboratory utilization management initiatives. Despite this, family physicians have been largely excluded from the planning and implementation of such initiatives. Our purposes were to (1) assess the importance of lab management issues to family physicians, and (2) attempt to define the types of initiatives most acceptable to family physicians.Design and methodsWe invited all Alberta family practice residents and practicing physicians to participate in a self-administered online electronic survey. Survey questions addressed the perceived importance of lab misutilization, prevalence of various types of misutilization, acceptability of specific approaches to quality control, and responsibility of various parties to address this issue.ResultsOf 162 respondents, 95% considered lab misutilization to be either important or very important. Many physicians placed the responsibility for addressing lab misutilization issues on multiple parties, including patients, but most commonly the ordering physician (97%). Acceptability for common strategies for quality improvement in lab misutilization showed a wide range (35%–98%).ConclusionsThese responses could serve as a framework for laboratories to begin discussions on this important topic with primary care groups.