Angiogram Overproduction

Research discovered that about 20 patients out of every 100 had no serious blockages. With 1 million angiograms per year, that means that 200,000 patients are being tested unnecessarily at a cost of $1,500 to $3,000 per test. That’s a half a billion dollars or more of unnecessary healthcare costs just for angiograms.

Additionally, one percent of these patients may have a stroke or heart attack as a result of the test (2,000 patients unnecessarily at risk).

Overall, unnecessary healthcare testing is estimated at $250 billion per year.

From a Lean perspective, this is classic “overproduction” – unnecessary testing resulting in unnecessary costs. medical errors and deaths.

Healthcare will have to do its part to help cover the costs of universal healthcare. Eliminating unnecessary testing is a good first step.