Observation Medicine: Providing Safe and Cost-Effective Care Beyond the Emergency Department

Observation units fill a ubiquitous need by providing a setting of care for patients not clearly requiring an inpatient admission to receive additional diagnostic workup or therapeutic intervention beyond the scope of a typical Emergency Department visit. Care for the patient with chest pain in whom the initial evaluation did not reveal a diagnosis and sufficient concern remained for myocardial infarction or ischemia was one of the earliest examples of observation care and remains the most common complaint encountered there today.

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