Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2016
The Emergency Medicine Events Register: An analysis of the first 150 incidents entered into a novel, online incident reporting registry.
Incident reporting systems are critical to understanding adverse events, in order to create preventative and corrective strategies. There are very few systems dedicated to Emergency Medicine with published results. All EDs in Australia and New Zealand were contacted to encourage the use of an Emergency Medicine - specific online reporting system called the Emergency Medicine Events Register (EMER). ⋯ A focus on correct diagnosis, procedure performance and investigation interpretation may reduce errors in the ED. The ability to learn from incidents and make system changes to enhance patient safety in healthcare organisations is an inherent part of providing a proactive, quality culture.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2016
Changing my perspective: How the development of emergency medicine in Sri Lanka can inform the Australasian experience.
When compared to an Australasian ED, the two major differences in the emergency medicine practice at Teaching Hospital Karapitiya are which patients are selected at triage and how those selected present. These differences have caused me to reflect on emergency medicine practice in Australasia and wonder if this practice is sustainable.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2016
Lower urgency paediatric injuries: Parent preferences for emergency department or general practitioner care.
Injuries are a significant proportion of lower urgency (triage category 4 or 5) child presentations to the EDs in metropolitan Melbourne. The purpose of the present study was to assess parental preferences and experiences regarding the treatment of lower urgency child injuries and the role of general practitioners (GPs) in such care. ⋯ Treatment provided in the ED for child injuries is valued highly by most parents, with a higher proportion of children with an injury being referred to the ED by their GP. Improving GP treatment skills and training opportunities may reduce GP referrals of lower urgency child injuries to the ED.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2016
Emergency weight estimation lookup tables for New Zealand children aged 5-10 years.
To derive novel emergency weight estimation tables for New Zealand children aged 5-10 years using ethnicity and sex to increase accuracy and precision. ⋯ The most accurate method for weight estimation in Auckland children aged 5-10 years is either the novel length-based lookup table or the existing Broselow-Luten tape. When length-based methods are not possible, the age-based lookup tables incorporating age, sex, ethnicity and body habitus are more accurate than existing methods of weight estimation.
-
Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2016
Accuracy of working diagnosis by paramedics for patients presenting with dyspnoea.
The present study aims to determine the agreement between paramedic and ED or hospital working diagnosis in dyspnoeic patients. ⋯ There was moderate agreement between paramedic and ED or hospital diagnosis. The number of cases with no clearly documented working diagnosis suggested that a singular working diagnosis may not always serve the complexity of presentation of some dyspnoea patients: more open descriptors such as 'mixed disease' or 'atypical features' should be encouraged.