Researchers analyzed data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for patients who went to the ED for abdominal pain from 2006 to 2009. The NHAMCS is conducted by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. In addition to the administration of pain medication, researchers looked at the use of diagnostic tests, length of stay, how often patients returned to the ED after 72 hours and admission rates for 2,298 patients younger than age 21.
Results showed that black and Hispanic children were more likely to stay in the ED for more than six hours compared to white children. However, there were no racial differences in what tests were performed to evaluate the cause of abdominal pain or hospital admission rates.
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