Impact of a Decision Aid on Patient Decision Making in Emergency Department Chest Pain Patients

Impact of a Decision Aid on Patient Participation in Decision Making and Resource Use in Low Risk Chest Pain Patients: A Randomized Trial

We are doing a study to assess the impact of including patients in making decision regarding their own medical care in the emergency department. We will randomly assign them to either receive a decision aid or usual care. In doing this, we aim to increase patient satisfaction and safely decrease medical cost.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults with a primary complaint of chest pain.
• Treating clinician's next consideration is observation unit admission for cardiac stress testing.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Initial cardiac troponin T value >99th percentile (>0.01ng/mL)
• History of coronary artery disease
• coronary revascularization procedure within the previous 30 days
• cocaine use within 72 hours by the clinician's initial history
• pregnancy
• patient cannot read English or have, in their clinician's judgment, major learning barriers, such as visual or hearing impairment or dementia that would compromise their ability to give written informed consent (or use the decision aid)