Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Association between ambulance dispatch priority and patient condition.
To compare chief complaints of the Medical Priority Dispatch System in terms of the match between dispatch priority and patient condition. ⋯ Scope for reducing under-triage and over-triage of ambulance dispatch varies between chief complaints of the Medical Priority Dispatch System. The highlighted chief complaints should be considered for future research into improving ambulance dispatch system performance.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Blunt chest trauma in a non-specialist centre: Right treatment, right place?
To compare patient characteristics, management and outcomes for patients admitted with isolated blunt chest trauma, managed by medical or surgical teams. ⋯ Amongst patients with isolated blunt chest trauma, those managed by medical teams were older, had more comorbidities and were more likely to have become injured with a low trauma fall than those managed by surgical teams. They had less access to analgesic options, developed pneumonia more often and had higher mortality.
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To describe the characteristics of adolescents presenting with deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) to a large Australian healthcare network. ⋯ Adolescent DSP presentations frequently involved impulsive ingestion of over-the-counter medications, suggesting less access to prescription medications. Additionally, pre-existing mental health history and re-presentation were common. Initiatives to prevent DSP might include an increased focus on the early identification and management of mental health problems in adolescents in the community.
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Emerg Med Australas · Dec 2016
Predicting and preventing peripheral intravenous cannula insertion failure in the emergency department: Clinician 'gestalt' wins again.
Failed attempts at peripheral i.v. cannula (PIVC) insertion in the ED are common. The psychological, physical and economic impact of these failures is significant. We sought to explore whether clinicians of differing experience levels can predict their own likelihood (clinician 'gestalt') of first-time cannula insertion success on any given patient. ⋯ When applied to our sample population, an algorithm relying on clinician gestalt to identify patients at high risk of PIVC failure had the greatest potential impact. These patients would be referred to expert PIVC inserters prior to, rather than after, failed attempts.