Zworth Reading Issue #9.5

This episode walks through five emergency medicine reads from the week of June 8, 2026, with a focus on separating useful clinical signal from misleading noise. It argues that most ED return visits are not errors and that bounce-back rates are a poor blunt quality metric; reviews the weak evidence for routine antibiotics in uncomplicated strep throat and makes the case for more shared decision-making; highlights that the new ACR epigastric pain guidance mostly confirms current practice, especially CT for suspected perforation and restraint for low-risk dyspepsia; summarizes two critical care papers showing that refractory septic shock identifies a very high-mortality group and that delays to antibiotics in neutropenic sepsis worsen outcomes; and closes with a sober look at ambulance offload delays, noting that while they clearly prolong ED stays and likely cause harm, the evidence for direct mortality impact remains surprisingly thin. 

*This episode came in out of sync - we apologize for the numbering.*