Physician ethnicity predicts successful ED analgesia

Abstract

Management of acute pain in emergency departments (EDs) is highly variable and often inadequate. Some patient characteristics predict receipt of analgesics, including age and race, but understanding of the effect of provider characteristics on the ED pain experience is very limited. Our objective was to investigate the association of patient and provider characteristics, especially racial concordance of patient and provider, and reduction of pain intensity. We conducted a prospective, multicenter cohort study of patients presenting to one of 20 US or Canadian EDs with moderate to severe pain, and subsequently discharged after treatment.