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When Peter Yarbrough joined the University of Utah's General Internal Medicine Division in 2009, a daily battery of tests, including blood count, for patients was the standard.

But five years later, Yarbrough and his colleagues have adjusted that tack and reduced the number of daily tests. The move saved the hospital $250,000 in a year.

The frequency of these tests "is cultural. Someone in the hospital wants to check blood daily to not overlook anything, but they're checking blood when they don't need to," Yarbrough said.

The U. found that about a third of the testing done at the hospital is wasteful, said Bob Pendleton, the hospital's chief medical-quality officer.

This is one of many cost-saving initiatives the U. has implemented in the past few years, with the help of a new data tool it developed.

That tool, known as Value Driven Outcomes, can run patient billing and payroll data to show the cost of every procedure and integrate quality data, such as mortality, infection and readmission rates, said Charlton Park, the U.'s chief analytics officer.

It's saving the hospital about $10 million each year. And so far, only about 10 percent of the hospital's 1,400 doctors are participating.

But patients might not be noticing a change to their bills. "The cost side to the patient is always tricky," Pendleton said. "We're talking about reducing our direct cost."

Hospital officials started in 2012 working their way through a list of the top 50 medical conditions, such as joint replacement and pneumonia, to determine the best quality outcomes for the lowest cost, Park said. They're about 30 conditions into that list, he added.

Before this initiative, each physician would use different supplies and techniques, which made costs vary.

What they've found now is higher cost doesn't necessarily mean better outcomes.

For example, some doctors performing hernia repairs were using a balloon instrument to blow up the abdomen so there was more room to work, Park said. These doctors argued the balloon, which cost $300 to $400, allowed them to work more quickly in the operating room, meaning they saved money, he said.

But after running the data through the tool, Park said, they found the device often made for a longer stint in the operating room.

This has started "conversations where surgeons learn from one another," Park said, adding that there was some hesitation about this tool at first because "physicians don't like the idea of seeing themselves compared with their colleagues."

The tool also has allowed the hospital to pick medications in a smarter way. For example, Pendleton said doctors use it to pick the appropriate antibiotics for patients who come in with cellulitis.

Eventually, Pendleton said, use of this tool will be mandatory for doctors throughout hospitals.

Norman Thurston, director of the state Department of Health's Office of Health Care Statistics, said these kinds of practices are good: They help physicians provide care while eliminating unnecessary steps and saving money.

But, Thurston said, it's important that doctors allow for leeway.

"Part of best practices is to establish a blanket rule ... but if a physician knows something else that makes this case different," then that doctor would adjust the protocol, he said.

Pendleton added that this tool could lead to more price transparency — such as a cost breakdown on bills — for patients, but the hospital isn't quite there yet.

We plan to "start embracing price transparency so the consumer does know, 'What does this mean for me?' " he said, "and having [the tool] allows us to move faster down that path."

Twitter: @alexdstuckey