Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2012
Prevalence of suicidality in asymptomatic adolescents in the paediatric emergency department and utility of a screening tool.
Many authorities recommend screening adolescents for risk of suicide. The ED is a potential setting for such screening. The aim of this study is to explore the use of the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ) as a screening tool for suicidality in patients who come to the ED without mental health concerns and without recent mental health history. The Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ) was the comparison standard. ⋯ The prevalence of suicidal ideation in asymptomatic patients presenting to this paediatric ED is very low. Using this selection method, the RSQ could not be validated, but would be unlikely to be suitable for screening this low-risk population with a high false positive rate.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2012
Capacity building in emergency care: An example from Madang, Papua New Guinea.
Divine Word University (DWU) is an emerging national university of Papua New Guinea (PNG) based in the provincial capital of Madang, providing training for Health Extension Officers (HEOs). HEOs form the backbone of healthcare delivery in PNG as clinicians, public health officers and health centre managers. Both campus-based and clinical teaching at the nearby Modilon Hospital is limited because of significant resource constraints. ⋯ This programme provides positive models of both emergency care capacity building in a resource-constrained setting and training in international EM for Australasian clinicians.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2012
Perspectives of emergency department staff on the triage of mental health-related presentations: Implications for education, policy and practice.
To explore ED staff perceptions of the factors that influence accuracy of triage for people with mental health problems. ⋯ Clinical guidelines and training have been developed to support the use of the Australasian Triage Scale. Further evaluation of the application of this scale to assess mental health problems is indicated. Additional work is also required to reduce variance in urgency assignment based on staff knowledge and attitudes about the causes, assessment and early management of psychiatric disorders.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2012
Unravelling relationships: Hospital occupancy levels, discharge timing and emergency department access block.
To investigate the effect of hospital occupancy levels on inpatient and ED patient flow parameters, and to simulate the impact of shifting discharge timing on occupancy levels. ⋯ Modern hospital systems have the ability to operate efficiently above an often-prescribed 85% occupancy level, with optimal levels varying across hospitals of different size. Operating over these optimal levels leads to performance deterioration defined around occupancy choke points. Understanding these choke points and designing strategies around alleviating these flow bottlenecks would improve capacity management, reduce access block and improve patient outcomes. Effecting early discharge also helps alleviate overcrowding and related stress on the system.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2012
Morbidity associated with amphetamine-related presentations to an emergency department: A record linkage study.
Amphetamine use is a global public health problem. We examined hospitalisations in a cohort of 138 patients who presented with an amphetamine-related problem to an ED in 2005. ⋯ Amphetamine-related presentations to the ED are associated with a significant cluster of hospitalisations around that episode. This is most prominent for psychiatric diagnoses, with a large increase in the total LOS in the year following cohort entry. Counselling less risky behaviour might decrease the burden of illness.