Want more labs and tests at the ER? You might ask for a female doctor

If you’ve ever been to the emergency room and thought you received a more thorough workup from a female physician, you might’ve been onto something. 

A new study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine backs that up: an analysis of more than 1.5 million emergency department visits among veterans found that female doctors admitted more patients to the hospital - and requested more lab tests and imaging - than their male counterparts. And these extra tests weren't wasteful - in fact, they were just as likely to find important problems.

"Our research finds that in the emergency department setting, female and male physicians may approach diagnostic uncertainty differently, and these differences don’t necessarily represent unnecessary care," Dr. Dan Ly, the study's lead author who is an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles, said in a news release.

These findings line up with previous studies that show female doctors generally order more diagnostic tests than male ones, although those results come from looking at primary care data. Looking at data from ER doctors speaks to larger behavioral patterns because people in emergency rooms don't have as much choice in who treats them.

For the study, researchers from UCLA Health compared data from patients treated in emergency rooms by male and female doctors. They found some interesting differences: female doctors ordered about 3-5% more tests than male ones and admitted about 3-5% more patients to the hospital.

Although other research has linked being treated by a female doctor with lower death rates, this study didn’t. 

But that doesn’t mean the extra care was pointless. Researchers checked to see if these extra admissions were wasteful by looking at how many patients were discharged after brief hospital stays - they didn't find more short stays among people treated by female doctors.

If you find yourself at the ER, remember that you have the legal right to request the treatment you want. Advocating for yourself will ensure you get the care you need.