Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2021
Implementing a Pandemic Roster in a Specialty Emergency Department - Challenges & Benefits.
To create a roster that eliminated unnecessary cross-staff exposure to ensure the hospital had sufficient staff to run the ED in the event that a group of staff are affected by COVID-19. This roster was aimed at providing staff with 'manageable shift lengths, down-time between shifts, regular breaks and access to refreshments' as dictated by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. ⋯ A pandemic roster plan to minimise staff exposure from other colleagues during a pandemic was possible. This helps to ensure an adequate workforce in the unfortunate event a staff contracts the disease leading to other close contact staff requiring isolation or succumbing to the same illness.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2021
Estimating the proportion of patients who transition to long-term opioid use following oxycodone initiation in the emergency department.
To report the number of patients discharged from ED with oxycodone immediate release (IR) over 12 months and estimate the proportion who potentially transition to long-term opioid use and subsequent injectable heroin use. ⋯ Modelling opioid use behaviour in an ED population demonstrated the potential development of unintentional long-term opioid use, and associated harms. Prospective study is required to fully understand trajectories of patients dispensed outpatient therapy from Australian EDs.
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Emerg Med Australas · Jun 2021
Time to antimicrobial therapy in septic shock patients treated with an early goal-directed resuscitation protocol: A post-hoc analysis of the ARISE trial.
Intravenous antimicrobial therapy within 1 h of the diagnosis of septic shock is recommended in international sepsis guidelines. We aimed to evaluate the association between antimicrobial timing and mortality in patients presenting to the ED with septic shock. ⋯ In this post-hoc analysis of the ARISE trial, early antimicrobial therapy was associated with increased illness severity, but 90-day adjusted mortality was not reduced.