Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2019
Should freestanding emergency departments be considered in Australia?
The concept of freestanding EDs is a popular operational model of emergency care in the USA. This model has been described as an emergency physician-created innovative solution in resolving ongoing overcrowding issues in EDs. A decentralised community-based emergency care model may be a solution to meet the increasing demand for emergency and unscheduled acute care in Australia. ⋯ The aim of freestanding EDs should be to manage and discharge a cohort of patients, mainly in Australasian Triage Scale 3 and 4 categories, currently seen in hospital-based EDs. This article briefly examines the potential merits and issues if this concept is considered in Australia. It also provides an early proposed model for such EDs.