Calculating Health Care Waste in Washington State: First, Do No Harm

The Washington Health Alliance recently published a report documenting the frequency of 47 low-value care practices.¹

Low-value services are defined as medical tests and procedures that have been shown to provide little clinical benefit and have the potential to cause harm.¹ Harm may be categorized as physical (a medical intervention that causes ≥1 negative consequences for the patient including infection, overexposure to radiation through unnecessary imaging, or an unneeded or duplicative test), emotional (worry and anxiety caused by a medical intervention such as being prescribed tests that are known to produce high rates of false-positive results), or financial. Harm is particularly troublesome when it is the result of health care that was unnecessary.