Primary care for emergency physicians

Abstract

This book is written for physicians who work within an emergency department or urgent care setting to provide them with a treatment plan for those patients who are deemed not to have an emergency medical situation and can be safely treated as an outpatient. Emergency physicians (EPs) see a wide variety of patients and ostensibly for emergency reasons. However, many patients present to the emergency department for primary care-related reasons due to multiple factors or are diagnosed with potentially chronic problems that require a primary care intervention. Examples include a new diagnosis of hypertension (without hypertensive emergency) or diabetes. Thus, it is prudent for the EP to learn about basic primary care management of these conditions. Unfortunately, the training of EPs does not include these conditions, and they are left to guess appropriate treatment or to start a new medication that may not be appropriate. This book aims to fill this gap by educating the EP on basic primary care interventions for specific conditions.