LABORATORIAL TESTS USE IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN RIO DE JANEIRO

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The importance of appropriate laboratory tests use and the need of costs controlling, lead the healthcare systems to asses the utilization of these tests. This analysis was focused on an area (AP 2.1) of the city of Rio de Janeiro, which has 12 outpatient clinics, and 60 family health teams and approximately 160,000 patients. To determinate the laboratory tests ordered, and the ones that had the biggest impact on the area's laboratorial budget. METHODS: monthly sheets containing the laboratorial tests cost were analysed from September 2015 until January 2016. The reviewed data were the tests ordered and their frequency, total and relative costs of the tests on the area's laboratorial budget. The data were also stratified by clinic and health care workers.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: on average, there were 46.783 tests ordered per month, with the average monthly cost of R$185.343,55. There were orders to an average of 7192,6 patients, the average ratio tests/patients was 6,7 and the average cost per patient was R$ 26,40. Complete blood count, glucose and creatinine were among the five most frequently ordered tests on all of the area's clinics and health care workers. As the frequent tests were the same during the research period, this might represent the population's demographic characteristics, clinics' work related process, or the health care worker's profile. This must be evaluated to identify unnecessary tests and further reduce the costs of the health care system.