The origins, benefits, harms, and implications of emergency medicine clinical policies.

Emergency physicians desire to provide their patients with care that is of the highest quality and is cost effective. Any tool that promotes these aims is good and should be used. Clinical policies have been proposed as a new method of prompting physicians to provide better care. While there is no direct evidence that emergency medicine clinical policies improve care, there is indirect evidence that they may be useful. ACEP has initiated a process for the development and evaluation of selected clinical policies. We anxiously await information that sheds light on the value of policies in enhancing the clinical practice of emergency medicine.