In a study titled “The impact of the hospital library on clinical decision making: the Rochester study,” physicians said that information provided by the library contributed to their ability to avoid patient mortality. The physicians also rated the information provided by the library more highly than that provided by other information sources such as diagnostic imaging, lab tests, and discussions with colleagues. The hospital librarians in Rochester, New York, developed a research project that explored the impact of library services on clinical decision making. A systematically sampled group of 448 physicians in the Rochester area agreed to participate in the study between September 1990 and March 1991. The physicians were asked to request some information related to a current clinical case and then to evaluate its impact on the care of their patients. As a result of the information provided by the library, 80 percent of the 208 physicians who returned their questionnaires said that they probably or definitely handled some aspect of patient care differently than they would have handled it otherwise. Changes in the following specific aspects of care were reported by the physicians -- diagnosis (29 percent), choice of tests (51 percent), choice of drugs (45 percent), reduced length of hospital stay (19 percent), and advice given to the patient (72 percent). Physicians also said that the information provided by the library contributed to their ability to avoid the following: Hospital admission (12 percent), patient mortality (19 percent), hospital-acquired infection (8 percent), surgery (21 percent), and additional tests or procedures (49 percent).
