Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
Effects of emergency department Care Coordination Team referrals in older people presenting with a fall.
The study aims to describe the characteristics of patients presenting to an ED with a fall and evaluate multidisciplinary Care Coordination Team (CCT) referrals on patient outcomes. ⋯ Maturing of the CCT is associated with a decrease in representation and readmission rate. Over time, the CCT attended higher urgency patients associated with stable admission rates. These associations were not significant and the clinical effectiveness of ED CCTs requires further examination.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
Case ReportsExtreme sports: extreme physiology. Exercise-induced pulmonary oedema.
We report five patients who presented to an on-site medical team with concurrent haemoptysis and shortness of breath at a recent triathlon event. After initial management in the field, three of the five patients were transported to hospital via ambulance for further management, resulting in patients with haemoptysis and dyspnoea being 17 times more likely to require hospital transport. It is important to consider the differential diagnoses for this presentation, particularly exercise-induced pulmonary oedema.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2013
2010-2011 Queensland floods: using Haddon's Matrix to define and categorise public safety strategies.
The 2010-2011 Queensland floods resulted in the most deaths from a single flood event in Australia since 1916. This article analyses the information on these deaths for comparison with those from previous floods in modern Australia in an attempt to identify factors that have contributed to those deaths. Haddon's Matrix, originally designed for prevention of road trauma, offers a framework for understanding the interplay between contributing factors and helps facilitate a clearer understanding of the varied strategies required to ensure people's safety for particular flood types. ⋯ The present study and its integration of research findings and conceptual frameworks might assist governments and communities to develop policies and strategies to prevent flood injury and fatalities.