Abstract Background Diabetes is a common chronic illness; it is estimated that over 38 million people in the USA all ages have diabetes and 8.17 million of them are not aware of it. Recently, diagnosing and monitoring diabetes has becoming depending on measuring A1C. A1C synthesizes from the attachment of hexose to hemoglobin molecule, which continues throughout the lifespan of the red blood cell, the more glucose in blood the more hemoglobin gets glycated or the higher A1C, and the levels does not change until the red blood cells die and get replaced with the younger ones, basically, A1c reflects the blood sugar control for the past 90 days or the lifespan of the red blood cell. Methods Data was collected from 52,800 specimens collected from residents at Long-Term Care Facilities in 2024; all samples were run for A1C using Roche Cobas C502. Patients were separated based on the specific time between orders for A1C. The data was separated based on time span between order days between testing. Patient data were separated further based on gender. The percentage of follow-up test within 90 and at any time was calculated. Statistical analyses were done using Analyse-it. Results women accounted for 54.7%; 33,563 patients had A1c done before, 7,149 of them had an A1C test done in less than 90 days. There was no statistical difference between men and women in the population we tested. Conclusion Laboratory tests are essential tools in patient management, but their overuse is becoming a growing concern, contributing to higher healthcare costs and reduced laboratory productivity due to the increased workload associated with running unnecessary tests, which includes phlebotomy time, reagents, supplies, and technologist time. Additionally, laboratories face reimbursement denials, which require additional staff for follow-up. Implementing test utilization stewardship is crucial and involves educating physicians on appropriate test ordering frequencies, conducting audits, providing feedback on ordering patterns, and setting rules to prevent unnecessary tests before sample collection. Such measures are essential for creating a more efficient healthcare system.
Khoury et al. (Wed,) studied this question.