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Safe Harbors in Emergency Medicine, Specific Aim 3

NCT05410366 · Status: WITHDRAWN · Type: OBSERVATIONAL

Last updated 2023-03-13

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Many patients who present to the emergency department (ED) receive a vast array of diagnostic tests, some of which might not be useful. Providers often feel obligated to order so many tests to protect themselves against the risk of being sued. The investigators believe if a standard of care providing legal protection for certain clinical conditions were agreed upon and followed, unnecessary testing would significantly decrease in the ED, which, in turn, would improve patient safety, augment the quality of care delivered, and increase patient satisfaction.

Conditions

  • Low Back Pain
  • Headache
  • Head Injury, Minor

Interventions

OTHER

Safe harbor clinical practice guideline

A safe harbor is a special type of clinical practice guideline which, under existing federal law, may serve as the legal standard of care, not just evidence of the standard of care. If a patient with a safe harbor condition satisfies all safe harbor inclusion criteria and does not meet any exclusion criteria, no imaging is required, and the patient may be discharged with specific instructions. If a patient is excluded from the safe harbor, then imaging decisions are per customary practice. The safe harbor clinical practice guidelines are provided to treating ED physicians, but they are not obligated to use them. The safe harbor pathways do not limit the diagnostic and therapeutic approach patients and physicians undertake during a clinical encounter. They have the liberty in this decision to proceed jointly down a clinical pathway most appropriate to the individual clinical circumstance.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

    collaborator FED

  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Alan B Storrow, MD · Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-09-30
Primary Completion
2024-03-31
Completion
2024-03-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05410366 on ClinicalTrials.gov