Back in 70's, otherwise known as the olden days (before DRG's
[Diagnostic Related Groups] and Compliance issues in medical lab
billing), standard admission work at our hospital was a CBC, urinalysis,
and RPR (serology for syphilis) on all adult admissions, plus whatever
the individual doctor ordered in addition. I'm not sure whether the
doctors just automatically ordered this or it was included in your
admission workups. I remember that we had at least 50-60 RPR's a day,
and usually at least one positive on a daily basis. Ours was a 350 bed
hospital then and it was pretty busy.

After the change to DRG billing in 1984, the hospital's census slowly
went down. It closed in 1996 when the census hovered between 70-80
patients, and pretty much every one we did have was Medicare or
Medicaid.

Nowadays, every test ordered must be by the physician in the U.S. and
cannot be a standard order set up by the admitting hospital.

Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology