ED resources burdened by common UTI

Emergency department visits for patients with a urinary tract infection known as hematuria, a common outpatient disorder, cost about $238 million a year, according to new research from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. And when those patients have imaging procedures, ED charges increase more than $75 million a year. The median ED charges for hematuria patients with diagnostic imaging totaled $4,300, up from to $1,138 without diagnostic imaging.

"Hematuria constitutes a considerable burden on economic resources in the ED, and it will require concerted efforts by all stakeholders to reduce both the use of imaging in diagnosing the disorder in that setting, and the costs associated with it," lead author Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford's Vattikuti Urology Institute said in a statement. Announcement