This book is written for physicians who work within an emergency department or urgent care
setting to provide them with a treatment plan for those patients who are deemed not to have an
emergency medical situation and can be safely treated as an outpatient. Emergency physicians
(EPs) see a wide variety of patients and ostensibly for emergency reasons. However many
patients present to the emergency department for primary care-related reasons due to multiple
factors or are diagnosed with potentially chronic problems that require a primary care
intervention. Examples include a new diagnosis of hypertension (without hypertensive emergency)
or diabetes. Thus it is prudent for the EP to learn about basic primary care management of
these conditions. Unfortunately the training of EPs does not include these conditions and
they are left to guess appropriate treatment or to start a new medication that may not be
appropriate. This book aims to fill this gap by educating the EP on basic primary care
interventions for specific conditions.
