Managing Clinical Uncertainty: Formalizing Management Reasoning in Emergency Care Delivery.

Abstract

Emergency care faces a persistent tension between the imperative for diagnostic accuracy and the complex social, environmental, resource, and time constraints inherent to clinical practice. Classical diagnostic reasoning, typically portrayed as convergent, binary, and occurring in serial, linear steps, often conflicts with the necessary pragmatism of emergency department care where clinicians routinely act under conditions of uncertainty. This article argues that diagnostic reasoning occurs in parallel to the broader and less explored framework of management reasoning. We contrast management reasoning as a multidimensional, context-sensitive process wherein clinical decisions-ranging from test ordering and therapeutic interventions to patient disposition-are continuously shaped by evolving information, patient preferences, clinician judgment, and system constraints. Although interrelated, diagnostic and management reasoning represent complementary cognitive processes, each with its own objectives, methods, and measures of quality. In this piece, we argue that management reasoning is both a teachable and assessable skill and should be systematically formalized into clinical care, research, and education to support high-quality, safe, patient-centered emergency care.