"There’s virtually no downside to getting an EKG in triage"

The only downside is when the ED is not staffed with a back-up Triage Nurse and doing an EKG extends the wait of patients in line waiting to be Triaged. In ED’s with the luxury of having open beds its simple, once the complaint is determined to be Chest Pain the patient goes straight back. Those that run full all the time, including their Hall Space, need to have 2 Triage Nurses or a Nurse / Midlevel / MD combo to not only handle the lines that form at Triage but do EKG’s and recheck those who are waiting. Some big urban ED’s try to do all this with one Nurse which results in a lot of things that should be done not getting done.