• Paul M Middleton, Tammy Ll Wu, Riccardo Yih-Nan Lee, Shiquan Ren, and Mary-Louise McLaws.
• South Western Emergency Research Institute, Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2021 Jun 1; 33 (3): 508516508-516.

ObjectiveTo investigate differences in presenting patient characteristics, investigation, management and related outcomes between culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and non-CALD chest pain (CP) patients presenting to the ED.MethodsA cohort study of 258 patients was enrolled on presentation to Liverpool Hospital ED with a complaint of CP over a 2-week period. Main outcomes included frequency and timeliness of diagnostic and radiological investigations, medication administered and ED length of stay. Administrative and clinical data were extracted and linked from Cerner EMR FirstNet®, PowerChart® and paper records.ResultsThere were 155 (60%) CALD and 103 (40%) non-CALD patients. CALD patients were older by 10 years (95% CI 4, 15; P < 0.0001). There were no significant differences in the number of pathology and imaging investigations carried out in each group, and similarly there were no significant differences in the number of patients administered analgesia or cardiac-specific medications. Neither group differed in their ED length of stay (median 280 vs 259.5 min; P = 0.79) or hospital admission rate (median 56% vs 55%, P = 0.8).ConclusionBoth CALD and non-CALD ED CP patients had similar test ordering, medication administration and clinical outcomes, but this was in the context of CALD patients being 10 years older together with a small study sample size. A larger cohort, matched for age, would provide further insights into potentially important differences.© 2020 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

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