Disposition at Equipoise: A Qualitative Study of Emergency Physicians' Decision-Making About Hospitalizing People...

People with dementia are often hospitalized from the emergency department (ED) for conditions that could potentially be treated in the outpatient setting. In scenarios of clinical equipoise-where either admission or discharge may be appropriate-little is known about how emergency physicians make disposition decisions.

We conducted a qualitative study with attending emergency physicians at a single academic medical center. Interviews included open-ended questions about disposition decision-making in general as well as structured case scenarios using a think-aloud protocol. We used an inductive approach to code interview data and elucidate themes about the factors emergency physicians consider in disposition decisions for people with dementia in situations of clinical equipoise.

We interviewed twenty-one physicians with an average of 10.5 years of clinical practice (range 5-21 years). Five themes emerged: (1) assessing availability of, reliability of, and burden faced by caregivers; (2) anticipating clinical trajectory and feasibility of outpatient follow-up; (3) identifying acute cognitive changes that may reflect serious underlying illness; (4) navigating medicolegal concerns; and (5) weighing potential harms of hospitalization. Among these, caregiver assessments and clinical trajectories were discussed most frequently, with physicians describing informal and variable approaches to caregiving assessments. While many physicians recognized the risk of discharging a delirious patient, few acknowledged that hospitalization itself could contribute to delirium or other harms. Overall, emergency physicians' decisions were shaped not only by patient characteristics, but by the surrounding health system's capacity to support timely and safe outpatient care.

ED disposition decisions for people with dementia often depend on caregiving context and health system constraints. Improving alignment of admission decisions with patients' and care partners' values and preferences may require structured approaches to assessing caregiver capacity and communicating risks of hospitalization. Health system investment in outpatient infrastructure and alternatives to admission may better support emergency physicians in making safe, patient-centered decisions.