Taking the initiative to cut health care costs. Report on a policy change to limit bronchopulmonary segmental drainage.

Before the study reported here began, the number of bronchopulmonary segmental drainage procedures performed each month at the University of Maryland Hospital averaged 7,200. Adoption of a policy allowing unnecessary treatment to be stopped on the basis of therapeutic objectives reduced this figure by more than two thirds, to a present level under 2,000. Comparison of the incidence of pulmonary infection and the average length of hospital stay during the six months before and the six months after the policy change showed no appreciable change.