Table 3

Association between physician and patient characteristics and rationale for 366 discharge decisions*

Physician characteristics†	Clinical judgment	Evidence-based	p Value
Age
>40‡	129	17	0.96
<40	179	24
Sex
Female	82	14	0.46
Male	234	31
Experience
>10 years	133	25	0.09
<10 years	183	20
Training
CCFP-EM	200	116	0.0007§
FRCPC	40	5
Training clustered by physician (mean proportion)
CCFP-EM	80.4%	22.3%	0.005
FRCPC	97.2%	7.5%
Patient characteristics†
Age
>40	257	40	0.21
<40	59	5
Sex
Female	175	23	0.59
Male	141	22
ED location
Observation	189	14	0.0007§
Emergent	93	20
Resuscitation	34	11

*Question 2: Did you use any specific criteria in making the discharge decision?
†Missing values for five encounters.
‡Missing values for 17 encounters.
^§Statistically significant values.
CCFP-EM, Canadian College of Family Physicians, Emergency Medicine Fellowship (3-years emergency training); ED, emergency department; FRCPC, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (5-year emergency training).