Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2015
Multicenter StudyImproved outcomes for emergency department patients whose ambulance off-stretcher time is not delayed.
To describe and compare characteristics and outcomes of patients who arrive by ambulance to the ED. We aimed to (i) compare patients with a delayed ambulance offload time (AOT) >30 min with those who were not delayed; and (ii) identify predictors of an ED length of stay (LOS) of >4 h for ambulance-arriving patients. ⋯ Patients arriving to the ED via ambulance and offloaded within 30 min experience better outcomes than those delayed. Given that offload delay is a modifiable predictor of an ED LOS of >4 h, targeted improvements in the ED arrival process for ambulance patients might be useful.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2015
Last drinks: A study of rural emergency department data collection to identify and target community alcohol-related violence.
The present study summarises the methodology and findings of a pilot project designed to measure the sources and locations of alcohol-related harm by implementing anonymised 'last drinks' questions in the ED of a rural community. ⋯ This pilot demonstrates the feasibility and reliability of implementing sustainable 'last drinks' data collection methods in the ED, and the ability to effectively map the source of alcohol-related ED attendances in a rural community.