Knowledge Bank

Pain is one of the most frequent primary complaints that bring patients into the Emergency Department (ED) – and pain treatment is known to be ineffective for half of these people (Galinski et al., 2010). For this reason, timely and effective pain management is essential. Previous research on gender differences in pain treatment has produced mixed results, and few data from ED settings are available. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in the timeliness, type/amount of opioid pain medication, or pre- and post-pain scores following medication administration between male and female patients in two large EDs. Retrospective patient visit data on chief complaint, pre- and post-medication pain score, and timeliness of medication administration from N = 1,966 patients were combined with three months’ worth of prospectively collected hourly ED departmental conditions data. ED conditions included unit census, and staffing and acuity levels, among other variables. The analysis revealed no statistically significant gender differences in the timeliness of treatment, choice of opioid pain medication, or number of doses. These results present an encouraging picture where male and female patients received equally timely and consistent pain treatment.