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Hospitals Nationwide Unnecessarily Perform Double CT Scans, -California Heath Line –  June 20, 2011Hundreds of hospitals nationwide routinely perform two chest CT scans on a single patient, needlessly exposing them to double doses of radiation and driving up costs, according to a review of Medicare data, the New York Times reports (Bogdanich/Craven McGinty, New York Times, 6/17).

Unnecessary Testing Patients who receive a double CT scan undergo a contrast and a noncontrast CT scan in succession (Appleby/Rau, Kaiser Health News/Washington Post, 6/18). Although most radiologists say nearly all chest issues can be accurately diagnosed with only one scan, 2008 Medicare data show that some hospitals performed double scans on chest patients more than 80% of the time. According to the Times, a single CT chest scan exposes a patient to 350 times the radiation of a standard chest X-ray (New York Times, 6/17).

Specifically, Medicare data show that 76,781 chest patients, or 5.4%, received double CT scans in 2008. While most hospitals administered them sparingly—a median of 2% of Medicare patients received two scans—618 hospitals performed double scans on at least 10% of Medicare chest patients, and 94 of those hospitals performed double scans on at least 50% of Medicare chest patients (Kaiser Health News/Washington Post, 6/18).

Experts note that double scanning also is common for privately insured patients (New York Times, 6/17). Although the number of overall non-Medicare patients who receive double scans is unknown, HealthPartners, a not-for-profit Minnesota HMO, reports that 7% of its chest patients received double scans in 2010 (Kaiser Health News/Washington Post, 6/18)….http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2011/6/20/hospitals-nationwide-unnecessarily-perform-double-ct-scans.aspx