A comparative study of laboratory utilization behavior of "on-service" and "off-service" housestaff physicians

Highly specialized housestaff programs often call for training in another specialty area, especially internal medicine. Because of differences in training background and experience with internal medicine, laboratory utilization patterns might differ. Hence, laboratory test comparisons between medical ("on-service") and nonmedical ("off-service") housestaff were carried out on the general medicine service. On-service and off-service housestaff were found to have similarly ill patients and similar workloads. Off-service housestaff generally used less laboratory services than on-service housestaff, although both groups used large numbers of tests. Despite differences in experience and training, off-service housestaff appeared to deliver less costly and apparently equal quality medical care, compared with on-service housestaff.