Could emergency medicine (EM), which often is characterized as overutilized by patients, criticized as excessive in performing tests, labeled as unjustifiably expensive, and susceptible to diagnostic error, be doing something right? Burke and colleagues¹ found that the mortality rate declined considerably among Medicare beneficiaries who had visited an emergency department (ED) from 2009 to 2016, particularly in patients with high-severity conditions. Given the limits of observational studies, the cause of the lower mortality rate is unknown. We suspect that both EM proponents and detractors will use the study’s analysis to validate their own health care policy conclusions.

急诊医学 (EM) 通常被患者过度使用、被批评为过度执行测试、被标记为不合理的昂贵且容易出现诊断错误，这是否能做正确的事情？Burke 及其同事¹发现，在 2009 年至 2016 年访问急诊科 (ED) 的医疗保险受益人中，死亡率显着下降，特别是在病情严重的患者中。鉴于观察性研究的局限性，死亡率较低的原因尚不清楚。我们怀疑 EM 的支持者和反对者都会使用该研究的分析来验证他们自己的医疗保健政策结论。