Emergency Medicine Physicians’ Views on Providing Unnecessary Management in the Emergency Department

PURPOSE: To assess the views of emergency medicine physicians (EMPs) on the practice of providing unnecessary medical management in the emergency department. METHODS: All EMPs in Saudi Arabia were approached to participate in this cross-sectional study. A self-administered online survey that collected the participants’ demographic information and opinions regarding the unnecessary management provided by EMPs in Saudi Arabia was conducted between December 2020 and February 2021. SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: A total of 181 EMPs returned the questionnaire. More than 80% of the participants believed that EMPs order unnecessary tests or procedures at least a few times per week. The major reasons for ordering unnecessary medical tests or procedures were “concern about malpractice issues” (60.8%), “not having enough time with a patient for meaningful discussion” (47%), and “just to be safe” (46.4%). More than 55% of the respondents also believed that EMPs are in the best position to address the problem of unnecessary testing. CONCLUSION: Most of the EMPs who participated in this study recognized that ordering unnecessary tests is a serious problem that happens on a daily basis. Many factors and reasons were described by the participants, and multiple possible solutions were suggested to help overcome the issue. Evaluating physicians’ perspectives on the issue is a key step in addressing the problem and implementing appropriate interventions.