Physician Awareness of Costs

Emergency physicians are the stewards of a broad array of costly treatment alternatives, and physician-level variability can profoundly affect the cost of care. These authors analyzed survey responses from 72 staff and resident emergency physicians who estimated the costs of common medicines, materials, imaging tests, and drugs used in two Canadian emergency departments. Estimates were entered as free text, and were considered correct if they were with 25% of the actual cost. Cost calculations included overhead, technician salary, and materials used in the test itself, but not administration, physician interpretation, collection materials, or needles and tubing (in the case of drugs).

Overall, physicians had low accuracy, with correct estima…