Finkelstein S N
Med Care. 1980 Oct;18(10):1048-56. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198010000-00008.
Many believe that improvement in laboratory automation has been responsible for the considerable growth in the volume of tests that has occurred in recent years. Results are presented from an 8-year national survey of hospital laboratory utilization that show no definitive correlation between technological change and growth in volume of well-established clinical laboratory tests. These results leave room for hypothesizing other major contributory factors to volume increases such as a behavioral change on the part of practitioners who order tests and place increased diagnostic importance on laboratory results in addition to medical histories and physical examinations. If the findings prove correct, successful regulatory strategies for the containment of laboratory costs might be as likely to come from those that directly address practitioners' behavior as from those that limit capacity by requiring prior approval for acquisition of new laboratory equipment.
许多人认为，实验室自动化的改进是近年来检测量大幅增长的原因。一项为期8年的全国医院实验室使用情况调查结果显示，技术变革与成熟临床实验室检测量的增长之间没有明确的相关性。这些结果为推测检测量增加的其他主要促成因素留出了空间，比如开检测单的从业者行为发生了变化，他们除了重视病史和体格检查外，还更加看重实验室检测结果的诊断价值。如果这些发现被证明是正确的，那么控制实验室成本的成功监管策略，可能既来自那些直接针对从业者行为的策略，也来自那些通过要求在购置新实验室设备前获得批准来限制产能的策略。
