--- title: Unnecessary Testing: Doctors Admit They Order Too Many Tests description: The surprising non-medical reasons why emergency room doctors order too many tests canonical: https://time.com/3754900/doctors-unnecessary-tests/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-24T04:01:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:36.591Z article:section: Health og:title: Your Doctor Likely Orders More Tests Than You Actually Need og:description: The surprising non-medical reasons why emergency room doctors order too many tests og:url: https://time.com/3754900/doctors-unnecessary-tests/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f43bf82499c1912/698784db428a9e1d4ecc7c3e/538585607.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: 538585607 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Your Doctor Likely Orders More Tests Than You Actually Need twitter:description: The surprising non-medical reasons why emergency room doctors order too many tests twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f43bf82499c1912/698784db428a9e1d4ecc7c3e/538585607.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Your Doctor Likely Orders More Tests Than You Actually Need > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=45165a24-f935-4fb0-a17a-62e2c33a72b9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside The Operating Room During Awake Surgery [Watch (HLS stream): Inside The Operating Room During Awake Surgery](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lyJruvm0.m3u8) (4:57)  _Published 2015-03-02. Brittany Capone is having a benign tumor removed from her brain and because it is so close to her speech center, surgeons will keep her awake and talk to her during the procedure_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 24, 2015 4:01 AM UTC  Spain, Doctors looking at X-ray image in Oncology Hospital Spain, Doctors looking at X-ray image in Oncology Hospital Javier Larrea—Getty Images/age fotostock RM  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 24, 2015 4:01 AM UTC When you’re rushed to an emergency room, the doctors immediately order a battery of tests to figure out what’s wrong. But while scans and blood draws can tell them an incredible amount about what’s ailing you and the best treatment you should get, study after study shows that all of this testing isn’t actually leading to better care. Now, a new survey of emergency room doctors suggests why. Of the 435 ER physicians asked about the tests they order for their patients, more than 85% admitted that in general, they call for too many tests, even if they know the results won’t really help them decide how to treat their patients. Reporting in the journal _Academic Emergency Medicine_, the authors also say that nearly all of the doctors—97%—admitted to personally ordering unnecessary imaging tests. “So many physicians acknowledged that they ordered tests for no medical reason, which makes it clear that physicians feel enormous pressure to behave in a way they may not want to,” says Dr. Hemal Kanzaria, an emergency room physician at University of California Los Angeles and lead author of the study. Such unnecessary testing is contributing to an estimated $210 billion in additional health care costs; ideally, appropriately used testing should reduce costs by detecting and diagnosing problems early, so patients can get the right treatments and avoid more expensive care. The top two reasons the doctors ordered these tests were fear of missing something that would help them diagnose their patients, and protection against malpractice. “The over-testing is not due to lack of knowledge on the physicians’ part or poor medical judgment. It more likely reflects the fact that as a society, we don’t like uncertainty, and that has led to an oversimplification of medical care,” says Kanzaria. “There is the thought that if there is any possibility of disease, then we should do something about it, and if there is any doubt, we should test. If the test helps one patient, then everyone should get the test.” So even when doctors know that a test won’t add much information to their treatment decision, they’re more concerned that the patient will want to know why the test wasn’t performed. Such decision-making behavior won’t change until more systemic problems in the way health care is delivered and paid for are addressed, the study authors say. They note that the way physicians are held accountable for medical decisions also needs to change, and patients need to become more involved in treatment decisions. That way, they say, the cultural expectation that doctors can never get a diagnosis wrong may start to fade. Doctors also need to be better trained and educated about the latest technologies and which patients will benefit most from them, they add. The doctors also said that they’d welcome patients becoming more involved in the decision-making process. There isn’t data suggesting that such shared decision-making would reduce unnecessary testing, but if doctor and patient are more open about the reasons for testing or not testing, then perhaps fewer tests might be done for non-medical reasons. “We need to be more cognizant of the culture within and outside of medicine that contributes to over-testing, and we need to address these systems and drivers,” says Kanzaria. “That’s what I hope will result from this work.” _Read next:_ [_Ebola Continues to Punish Survivors One Year After Start of Outbreak_](http://time.com/3754599/ebola-lessons-one-year-on/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript Are you pretty comfortable dear? The first time I found out I had a tumor, I was 20. Where do you live dear? I would go get something and when I got there, I wouldn't know what I was going to get. Do you know where you are? I couldn't remember things good, so I was nervous. So that it's crazy. [ MUSIC ] I just want water. I first heard about the surgery, where I would have to be awake, about a month ago. It's not a matter of being awake or not. It's just the whole thing about having surgery of the brain period, is going to be, like, the hardest thing. Very nervous. I'm a nervous guy. [ LAUGH ] It's going to be the longest four hours of our life. We just hope this all turns out good, that's all. No. You did not get me a teddy bear. What am I going to do with this thing? [ LAUGH ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ LAUGH ] Brit baby. What? A few more hours it'll be all over. Thank god, I'm tired. So how do you guys all feel? We want it to be over. That's all. If they would let me scrub up, I would love to come in the operating room. I would love it. The idea is to take out the tumor and leave the brains behind. [ MUSIC ] It's sort of a misnomer. You're not awake for the entire procedure. For most of the surgery, you're gonna be quite deeply sedated so that you won't be aware [ CROSSTALK ] It's not terribly traumatic for patients. I always reassure them that we're gonna sedate them. We're not gonna put them to sleep except during the opening and the closing. You're going to be really comfortable. You're going to be surprised. One of the most important people in the room is anesthesiologists. No smiling, no laughing. If you go to sleep smiling you wake up smiling. [ LAUGH ] The art part of this is tailoring those medications to the point where the patient is sufficiently sedated that they tolerate the procedure. Timeout, this is. Brittany Capone, she has a left posterior temporal tumor. Everybody agree we're on the left side? Yup. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] Left sided tumors we we're worried about speech. And it includes both motor speech and receptive speech. Name a word that starts with B. Brittany. Brittany, there ya go. You can hear the sort of a cadence the patient gets into. And if you notice any hesitancy we can, we could hear it instantaneously. Name something you paint with. Paint brush. That's. The most memorable ones now are, are the, the patients who, who carry on interesting conversations with us during surgery. No fennel. I like fennel too. The whole thing is pretty surreal actually. But reassuring all that's reassuring to us. What time is it? It's ten o'clock. You got a date? You got a date? Do I get to see the tumor? No. Not really. It's going to be hard for you to see it. Are you going to put me back to sleep? Very soon, yes. After the scalp is closed and the head is bandaged, we turn off all the medication. And the patient will wake up. Brittany. Brittany. Brittany. Can you open your eyes? Brittany? It's really, quite amazing how quickly they wake up and how bright and alert they are, after several hours of neuro surgery. Show me your teeth. Big smile. Smile, smile, smile. Good. Stick out your tongue. Good. Craniotomy is not a terribly painful operation. It's not like a chest surgery or an abdominal surgery. Can you lift this leg up? The next day you're walking on the ward after a craniotomy. Try to touch my hand here. There's just not much to hurt in the brain. That's the good thing. Today's a sunny day in New York city. [ MUSIC ] Today is a sunny day in New York City. Mmhm. 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