The hospital where I work has one of the busiest emergency departments in Boston. Patients come in with everything you might imagine, from heart attacks to rabbit bites. A number of these patients, after being evaluated and treated, can be discharged home from the emergency department; others need to be admitted for further management. For still others, the plan isn’t immediately clear. Let’s say a patient has pain from a kidney stone. Can he try to pass the stone, or does he need intravenous medications and surgery? Such a patient might benefit from a short period of observation, in a so-called observation unit. If his pain improves, he could potentially return home, avoiding an admission.
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