Emergency Department (ED) physicians often face challenges balancing timely care and resource use for patients with chest pain. A multicenter subgroup analysis of the 5-site high-sensitivity HEART Pathway (hs-HP) implementation study, published in The American Journal of Cardiology, evaluated its impact on hospitalization and short-term safety across different age groups. The study compared pre-implementation use of the traditional HEART Pathway with contemporary troponins (January 2019–April 2020) to postimplementation use of hs-HP with high-sensitivity troponins (November 2020–February 2022).

The analysis included 26,126 patients (35.3% non-White, 52.7% female) classified as young (18–45 years), middle-aged (46–64 years), or older (≥65 years). Postimplementation, hospitalizations decreased by 18.1% in older patients (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.47; 95% CI, 0.42–0.52), 18.2% in middle-aged patients (aOR 0.48; 95% CI, 0.44–0.52), and 7.5% in young patients (aOR 0.69; 95% CI, 0.59–0.76). Thirty-day death or myocardial infarction rates remained stable across all groups, with aORs close to 1.00.