Study objective

To define the chest pain emergency department and the outpatient chest pain evaluation center, and to critically analyze the costs and benefits of modifying or replacing the current system of hospital-based evaluation of chest pain patients with these new systems.

Data sources

Peer-reviewed articles, published letters, book chapters, national health statistics, and personal communications were used.

Sources were limited to those describing experiences in the United States.

Study selection

Relevant sources from the United States were reviewed.

Data synthesis

The widespread adoption of the chest pain ED as currently configured would result in increased health care expenditures of between $389 million and $3.9 billion.