[Inappropriately ordered tests from hepatitis B vaccinated subjects]

Laboratory testing for viral hepatitis B constitutes a vast burden regarding the cost and the workload for health care system for many countries including ours. There are several reports stating that the cost in question is not always necessary. As a consequence of larger scale vaccination programmes, an increase in unnecessary hepatitis B testing is expected in vaccinated individuals. The present retrospective study aims to determine the rate of inappropriately ordered tests from vaccinated individuals and to discuss the causes and possible solutions of this problem. Laboratory records of 56.349 subjects admitted to Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Izmir, during 2007 and 2009, were evaluated retrospectively for hepatitis B serological test results. Unnecessary testing was defined as the requests for HBsAg, anti-HBc, anti-HBc IgM, HBeAg and anti-HBe tests from those who had positive anti-HBs and negative anti-HBc results. The cost burden was calculated by taking account the prices recommended by the Department of Social Security. The appropriateness of anti-HBs test orders were not taken into evaluation since specific clinical conditions (immune response disorders, HIV infection, chronic hemodialysis, newborns of HBsAg positive mothers, contact with HBsAg carriers) were not clarified. It was found that among the 17.869 samples tested for both anti-HBs and anti-HBc, 4402 (24.6%) were ordered from subjects who were vaccinated against hepatitis B virus (anti-HBs positive, anti-HBc negative status). Thus, 11.405 (12.9%) tests out of a total of 88.174 hepatitis B tests (HBsAg, anti-HBc, anti-HBc IgM, HBeAg, anti-HBe) were unnecessarily ordered. Social security services and/or individuals paid approximately 59.000 USD for these unnecessary tests in three years, leading to an economic loss of approximately 20.000 USD yearly. Providing appropriate feedback to clinicians and reflex test application (to order a test according to the results of previous tests in accordance to diagnostic test algorithms) were considered to be useful in prevention of the problem.