Post-Policy Implementation Review of Rapid Fetal Fibronectin (fFN) Testing for Preterm Labour in Alberta

In 2006, the Alberta Ministry of Health issued a policy to implement fetal fibronectin (fFN) testing as a publicly funded service for pregnant women. The goals were to reduce maternity health care utilization and unnecessary treatment, which would result in cost-savings for the health system by more accurately diagnosing false preterm labour. We conducted a post-policy implementation review to determine whether the policy implementation achieved its goals.

We assessed the impacts of fFN testing on clinical decision-making for ambulance transfer, hospital admission, and length of hospital stay by comparing these variables between the tested and untested patients. This post-implementation analysis was conducted separately for inpatients and outpatients and for true and false preterm labour, using multilevel regressions with episodes or visits being nested within patients. We then assessed the impact of fFN testing on costs to the health system by using decision-tree models populated with actual data and results from the regressions.

The additional information, provided by fFN testing, influenced clinical decision-making. However, physicians placed a greater significance on positive test results than on negative results, which resulted in an inadvertent increase in health care utilization. After including the costs of fFN testing, the total cost to the system increased by $4.2 million (in 2014 Canadian dollars) between 2008 and 2013, with contributions of $700 000 for false labour and $3.5 million for true preterm labour.

The policy to adopt fFN testing in Alberta did not achieve the intended aims of reducing unnecessary health care utilization to achieve cost-savings for the health system. There was an inherent tendency to err on the side of caution, and physicians were influenced more by positive test results.