So much of what we’re told to do calls for sweeping practice changes or titanic additions to our routine approach. My own articles have advocated for tremendous shifts in typical techniques, and one need not look far to find another recommendation for massive and cutting-edge changes to what we learned in residency or over years at the bedside. Sometimes, though, minimal additions can have monumental results. Such is the case with providing probiotics from the emergency department, a minor augmentation to practice with compelling evidence that it should have become standard of care long ago. Antibiotics are among the most commonly-prescribed medications from emergency departments, constituting nearly 20 percent of all ED prescriptions in one annual survey. Frustratingly, those same antibiotic prescriptions are responsible for a truly staggering amount of complications and a subsequent 150,000 annual ED visits for allergic reactions and other adverse events.

Read More