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Inside Story
Less Is More
May 2016

Challenging the “Culture of Culturing”: The Case for Less Testing and More Clinical Assessment

Author Affiliations
  • 1University of Colorado School of Medicine, Division of Health Care Policy Research, Aurora
JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(5):587-588. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.0525

The patient’s admitting diagnosis from the emergency department (ED) was a urinary tract infection (UTI), one of most common diagnoses of our Acute Care for Elders service. He was a frail 84-year-old resident of a nearby nursing home with faded blue, watery eyes. He showed little expression as our team introduced ourselves. He had a history of psychiatric disease and a diagnosis of dementia. The combination meant that he might be challenging to interview, but he was alert, attentive, and answered questions appropriately. He knew that he had fallen, that he was in the hospital, and that he had a facial laceration.

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