Why is Use of CT Scans Soaring in Emergency Rooms?
Another episode in the if-you-build-it-they-will-come (and pay) story of medical technology has been written recently by hospital emergency rooms. In 1996, about three in one hundred ER patients were given a CT scan; by 2007, the figure had grown nearly fivefold, to one in seven ER patients, according to a new study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Does this greater diagnostic investment result in fewer people being admitted to the hospital — which is a good thing — or are CTs being overused, and padding the health-care bill without much payoff?
The hospitalization rate following a CT scan was 26% in 1996, and 12% percent in 2007. During that period, the overall hospitalization rate of ER patients rose from about 11% to about 13%.
The cost-benefit issue was examined recently by Kaiser Health News, not only in the context of cost, but because CT scans — which render a three-dimensional image by coordinating a series of X-rays taken from multiple angles — can subject patients to excess radiation.
The researchers, from the University of Michigan Health System, said the radiation risk could be higher for children, patients receiving multiple scans and those who develop complications from the intravenous dyes the imaging often requires.
The American College of Emergency Physicians claimed that fewer patients being admitted to the hospital can be attributed partly to the diagnostic tool.
Hard to argue with a technology that appears to help cut hospital admissions by half, but the study also finds that this positive effect of CT scanning “appeared to diminish after 2003” when the rate “flattened and stabilized” as CT use continued to rise.
Dr. Keith Kocher, the study’s lead author, said, “There are risks to overuse of CT scans … so if they’re done for marginal reasons you have to question why. For example, patients who complained of flank pain (pain in the side) had an almost 1 in 2 chance of getting a CT scan by the end of the study period. Usually most physicians are doing that to look for a kidney stone, but it’s not clear if it’s necessary to use a CT scan for that purpose.”
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