Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2018
Routine screening and related interventions significantly improve the effectiveness of emergency department detection and management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
To evaluate the effectiveness of a routine screening and triage tool for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in improving clinical care delivery in an ED setting. ⋯ Detection and appropriate management of AWS and documentation of alcohol use can be improved significantly through adoption of a brief screening and triage tool, and related interventions to increase awareness of alcohol-related problems.
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A number of new time critical medical interventions are highly specialised. As such, they are not available in many hospitals and EDs. This necessitates transfer to another facility, which is often associated with some degree of delay. Processes to facilitate timely access to these interventions should aim to replicate or improve on that which would have been available should the patient have been in the community, and responded to, primarily, by an emergency medical service.