Can diagnostic assessment using an ‘Accelerated Pathway’ reduce hospital admissions for chest pain in New Zealand?

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The research will provide an innovative and workable change to the medical decision making involved in the investigation, and service delivery for patients presenting acutely to Emergency Departments (ED’s) with possible cardiac chest pain. It is a randomised trial comparing current care with a new ‘fast-track’ pathway. This research will support research knowledge translation by proving the effectiveness in real-time clinical practice, of the findings of recent, promising, cutting edge, New Zealand research. This research suggests that for significant numbers of patients, an ‘accelerated’ chest pain pathway can rule-out Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) sooner, enabling earlier progression to the next phase of chest pain investigation(s) and, importantly, allow early discharge from ED, without hospital admission. It is beneficial for the health service, which avoids unnecessary admissions, duplication of staff activities and pressure upon urgent care services.