Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2018
Letter Case ReportsBufadienolide toxicity in a child following cane toad egg ingestion.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2018
Why do 'fast track' patients stay more than four hours in the emergency department? An investigation of factors that predict length of stay.
Low-acuity 'fast track' patients represent a large portion of Australian EDs' workload and must be managed efficiently to meet the National Emergency Access Target. The current study determined the relative importance and estimated marginal effects of patient and system-related variables in predicting ED fast track patients who stayed longer than 4 h in the ED. ⋯ We identified the most important variables for predicting length of stay greater than 4 h for fast track patients in our ED. Identifying factors that influence length of stay is a necessary step towards understanding ED patient flow and identifying improvement opportunities.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2018
ReviewReview article: Investigations and the pregnant woman in the emergency department - part 1: Laboratory investigations.
Accurate assessment of the pregnant patient in the ED depends on knowledge of physiological changes in pregnancy, and how these changes may impact on pathology tests, appearance on point-of-care ultrasound and electrocardiography. In addition the emergency physician needs to be cognisant of disorders that are unique to or more common in pregnancy. Part 1 of this review addresses potential deviations in laboratory investigation reference intervals resulting from physiological alterations in pregnancy, and the important causes of abnormal laboratory results in pregnancy. Part 2 will address the role of point-of-care ultrasound in pregnancy, physiological changes that may affect interpretation of point-of-care ultrasound, physiological changes in electrocardiography, and the safety of radiological procedures in the pregnant patient.