The United States spends a greater proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP)
on health care than any other country. One cause for this may be lower physician risk
tolerance in the United States due to concern about malpractice litigation. Transient
ischemic attack (TIA) is a common emergency department (ED) complaint for which hospitalization
is usually of little benefit. Despite numerous publications identifying low-risk patients
safe for discharge, there is still concern that a patient may develop a stroke at
home, so physicians often admit their TIA patients. No previous published manuscript
has compared US admission rates for TIA with those in other countries. We hypothesize
that greater concerns about malpractice litigation in the United States results in
higher rates of hospitalization compared to Canada. We chose Canada because the proportion
of GDP spent on health care there is 1/3 lower than in the United States.
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© 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc.
