Empiric treatment of gonorrhea and chlamydia in the ED

A retrospective study was conducted on female patients who were screened fo r Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhea. The purpose of the study w as to determine if any factors predict empiric therapy at the index visit, Of 911 patients enrolled in the study, 100 were found to have positive DNA screens and 54 were given empiric therapy, A logistic regression was used t o test the ability of age, ethnicity, DNA probe result and provider type (p hysician or midlevel provider), to predict empiric treatment, DNA probe res ult and provider type were the only 2 factors that were found to predict em piric therapy, A subsequent analysis using a Cochran-Mantel-Hanszel test to control for DNA probe result revealed that the provider type remained the only variable that predicted empiric treatment, (Am J Emerg Med 2001;19:274 -275. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company).