SHEA Publishes Resource to Help Hospitals Build the Business Case for Diagnostic Stewardship

Arlington, Va. – The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) has published a new resource describing how diagnostic stewardship can improve patient outcomes, strengthen hospital quality metrics, and reduce healthcare costs.

Business Case for Diagnostic Stewardship: A Practical Guide from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Diagnostic Stewardship Special Interest Group, published in Antimicrobial Stewardship and Healthcare Epidemiology (ASHE), provides healthcare leaders with a framework for developing institution-specific business cases for diagnostic stewardship programs, including financial models for five high-impact interventions.

As an example, the authors estimate that a representative 200-bed community hospital implementing all five interventions could generate approximately $2.5 million to $2.8 million in annual laboratory and clinical savings. Depending on a hospital’s baseline performance, improved quality metrics could also reduce CMS Hospital-Acquired Condition penalties by an estimated $200,000 to $600,000. The interventions may also improve publicly reported healthcare-associated infection metrics and hospital reputation.

Diagnostic stewardship ensures the right test is ordered for the right patient at the right time and that results are appropriately interpreted. The paper examines five common opportunities for improvement:

• Optimizing Clostridioides difficile testing
• Optimizing urine culture use
• De-implementing unnecessary procalcitonin testing
• Optimizing respiratory pathogen panel use
• Optimizing blood culture use

For each intervention, the authors outline implementation strategies, projected financial impact, and practical examples that hospitals can adapt to their own settings.

“Healthcare leaders know that every investment must improve both patient care and operational performance,” said Sarah E. Turbett, MD, senior author of the paper. “This framework helps hospitals evaluate and implement diagnostic stewardship in ways that improve clinical outcomes, strengthen quality metrics, and demonstrate measurable value.”

The publication comes as diagnostic excellence receives increasing national attention. The CDC’s Core Elements of Hospital Diagnostic Excellence identifies diagnostic stewardship as a key strategy for improving diagnosis while advancing healthcare quality, safety, and value-based care.

The paper was developed by SHEA’s Diagnostic Stewardship Special Interest Group to help healthcare executives, laboratory leaders, infection prevention professionals, antimicrobial stewardship teams, and clinicians develop institution-specific business cases for diagnostic stewardship initiatives.

About SHEA
The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) is a professional society representing physicians and other healthcare professionals in the fields of healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship.

Media Contact:
Lindsay MacMurray
Director of Publications, Marketing & Membership
lmacmurrary@shea-online.org