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Abstract Objectives To assess the effectiveness and safety of the new clinical pathway for patients presenting to an ED with AF, incorporating community next‐working‐day follow‐up and more specific clinician guidance around medication prescribing. Methods A before‐and‐after, retrospective cohort study comparing patients presenting to Christchurch ED with acute uncomplicated AF in the year before (‘hospital‐based’ follow‐up) and after (‘community‐based’ follow‐up) implementation of a new AF management approach. The ‘community’ pathway replaced hospital‐based review with a next‐day community follow‐up and introduced more specific anticoagulation recommendations. Results A total of 1065 patients met inclusion criteria, with 531 presenting during the ‘hospital‐based’ pathway period and 534 during the ‘community’ pathway period. The spontaneous reversion rate was approximately 61% in both cohorts. Following the implementation of the community pathway, there was no increase in cardioversions (16.6% vs 20%, difference 3.5% [95% CI −1.4 to 8.3]), admission rates (32.8% vs 32.2%, difference − 0.6% [95% CI −6.4 to 5.3]), or AEs (60‐day all‐cause mortality 1.3% vs 0.9%, difference − 0.7% [95% CI −2.3 to 1]). Attendance at a follow‐up AF clinic improved from 92.9% to 98.1% (difference 5.2% [95% CI 0.7–9.7]). Clinician adherence to anticoagulation guidelines increased by 7% (95% CI 1.6–12.4). Conclusions A ‘rate‐and‐wait’ strategy for managing acute uncomplicated AF continues to allow a significant proportion of patients to self‐revert to sinus rhythm, without requiring hospital admission or cardioversion procedures. Transitioning to an off‐site, community AF clinic is both safe and effective, demonstrating increased clinic attendance and improved adherence to anticoagulation guidelines.