Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Age-related policies allow adolescents to access paediatric and adult EDs. Anecdotally, paediatric and adult EDs report challenges when caring for older and younger adolescents, respectively. Our aim was to describe the characteristics of an adolescent population attending an adult ED, co-located with a tertiary paediatric ED. ⋯ Contrary to reported staff perceptions, adolescent chronic physical illness presentations were not a major burden. Alcohol was likely under-recorded as a contributing factor to presentations.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2017
De-labelling self-reported penicillin allergy within the emergency department through the use of skin tests and oral drug provocation testing.
Self-reported penicillin allergy is common among patients attending the ED, but is a poor predictor of true immunoglobulin E-mediated hypersensitivity to penicillin. We hypothesise that with a combination of skin testing and drug provocation testing, selected patients can be safely de-labelled of their allergy. ⋯ Selected patients in the ED who self-report an allergy to penicillin can be safely tested there for penicillin allergy, using skin tests and oral drug provocation testing. This testing allows a significant de-labelling of penicillin allergy, with the majority of these patients able to tolerate penicillin without incident.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2017
Hospital use in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients with chronic disease.
The objective of this study was to compare rates of hospital utilisation in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples before and after hospital admission for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus. ⋯ Aboriginal people use health services in a different manner when compared to non-Aboriginal people. In a subset of patients with chronic disease, high use may be reduced with better access to primary healthcare. Policy-makers and healthcare providers should examine healthcare use from primary to tertiary care among the Aboriginal population, with a particular focus on ED presentations; investigate the underlying causes driving specific patterns of health service utilisation among Aboriginal people; and develop interventions to reduce potential deleterious impacts, and enhance the potential benefits, of specific patterns of healthcare use.