Variation in the Diagnostic Evaluation among Persons with Hematuria: Influence of Gender, Race and Risk Factors for Bladder Cancer

Only 18% of patients with an incident hematuria diagnosis underwent complete hematuria evaluation. Gender had a substantial effect on referral to urology when controlling for socioeconomic factors but otherwise it had an unclear role on the quality of evaluation. African American patients had markedly lower rates of thorough evaluation than Caucasian patients. Number of risk factors predicted referral to urology among men but it was otherwise a poor predictor of evaluation. There is opportunity for improvement by increasing the completion of hematuria evaluations, particularly in patients at high risk and those who are vulnerable.