Comparison of efficiency of cardiologists and internists in managing patients with suspected myocardial chest pain.

The charts of 56 patients with chest pain who were admitted to the critical care units to rule out myocardial infarction were evaluated concurrently and retrospectively to compare the efficiency of cardiologists and internists. The number of unnecessary days used to rule out myocardial infarction, the number of unnecessary inhospital days used after ruling out myocardial infarction, the length of cardiac work-up, and the length of hospital stay were determined for 23 patients of cardiologists and 33 patients of internists. The cardiologists' patients had fewer unnecessary days after ruling out myocardial infarction (2.76 vs. 0.43 days, p less than .01) and a shorter length of hospital stay (5.15 vs. 2.91 days, p less than .02). We concluded that consideration should be given to increasing and refining the supplementary role of physician-experts to primary care physicians as one means of improved resource allocation.