Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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To describe Australian ED workload over the period 2017-2020 using data from twice annual Access Block Point Prevalence Studies, and to identify any impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Occupancy increased by more than demand 2017-2019, with some decrease in 2020: in June presentations were 12.7% lower than 2019, in September back to the normal range outside Victorian and Major Paediatric Referral hospitals. Future research needs to consider locality, role delineation and work practice change in comparing ED pandemic responses.
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A trauma patient with orbital compartment syndrome may lose vision within hours of the injury. This article describes an approach to decompressing the orbit which may be sight-saving.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2021
ReviewReview article: Has the implementation of time-based targets for emergency department length of stay influenced the quality of care for patients? A systematic review of quantitative literature.
Time-based targets (TBTs) for ED stays were introduced to improve quality of care but criticised as having harmful unintended consequences. The aim of the review was to determine whether implementation of TBTs influenced quality of care. Structured searches in medical databases were undertaken (2000-2019). ⋯ The evidence for associations was mostly low certainty and confidence in the findings is accordingly low. Quality of care generally improved after targets were introduced and when compliance with targets was high. This depended on how targets were implemented at individual sites or within jurisdictions, with important implications for policy makers, health managers and clinicians.