The purpose of this Quality Improvement (QI) initiative is to evaluate the impact of a randomized Our Practice Advisory (OPA) intervention on physician ordering behavior of Hemoglobin A1c (A1c) and Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) tests within a 30-day interval from the prior test. The OPA will fire when an A1c or TSH are ordered within 30 days of a prior result (these short-interval tests are widely considered unnecessary) and will ask providers to reconsider the order. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention by randomizing patients 1:1 such that physicians caring for the patient will either (1) receive the OPA or (2) not receive the OPA if the providers order a short-interval test. This study is being conducted for a primary QI intent, as the results will (1) dictate if the short-interval OPA should be implemented across all patients, and (2) if this short-interval OPA should be applied to other labs aside from A1c and TSH. In these ways, the purpose of this study is to directly inform health system operations.
